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In 1795, Napoleon Bonaparte offered a reward for whoever could develop a safe, reliable food preservation method for his constantly traveling army (Meredith 2019). -
Nicholas Appert discovered the first method of canning and won Napoleon Bonaparte's reward.
This method was based on the idea of heat-processing food inside of glass jars. After, these jars were reinforced with wire and sealed with a wax. -
"Englishman Peter Durand introduced a method for sealing food in "unbreakable" tin cans" (Meredith 2019). -
Robert Ayars opens the first American cannery. -
John Mason invented a glass container with a screw-on thread molded into its top and a lid with a rubber seal (Meredith 2019). This is where the idea "Mason jar" came from. The jars are still widely used today to preserve foods of all types. -
The Ball Corporation starts manufacturing glass jars for home canning. -
Alexander H. Kerr and the Kerr Glass Manufacturing Corporation create a home canning supply business -
The USDA made its first reference to the canning process in the Farmer’s Bulletin 359 from May 1909, entitled “Canning Vegetables in the Home” -
USDA publishes "Canning Peaches on the Farm"
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World War I begins. -
Kerr developed the idea of a metal lid with a permanently attached gasket that a man named Julius Landsberger had invented. Kerr came up with a metal disk with a similar gasket, held in place by a threaded metal ring. The modern 2-piece canning lid was born (Meredith 2019).
This 2-piece lid has a sealing compound that, when properly used, softens during the canning process and forms an airtight seal as the container cools (Ingham 2021). -
The U.S. Department of Agriculture determines that pressure canning is the only safe way to process low-acid foods -
World War II starts -
Food rations for both the front line and home front are cut. As sugar was highly prized and highly rationed, households that canned would receive extra pounds of sugar, which increased the popularity of canning tremendously. Although, as food rations were lifted, the incentive to can decreased and so did home canning.
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Peak in home canning in the United States, with more than four billion cans and jars processed. -
USDA put pressure on the War Production Board to ease restrictions on pressure canner production. -
Do-It-Yourself movement results in a resurgence of home canning and pressure canners -
The U.S. Department of Agriculture first publishes its Complete Guide to Home Canning -
USDA Standards A national survey of home canners finds that up to 57% use methods deemed unsafe by USDA standards Date K, Fagan R, Crossland S, Maceachern D, Pyper B, Bokanyi R, Houze Y, Andress E, and Tauxe R. (2011) 'Three Outbreaks of Foodborne Botulism Caused by Unsafe Home Canning of Vegetables--Ohio and Washington, 2008 and 2009,' Journal of Food Protection, 74(12)