2. In the small towns and farming communities, the first preservation
methods for meats, as well as for fruits and vegetables, were pickling,
curing, drying, and preserving. Not until later was canning known. It
was this preserving of foodstuffs in the home that led to the
manufacture and commercial canning of many kinds of edible materials.
These industries, however, are of comparatively recent origin, the first
canning of foods commercially having been done in France about a hundred
years ago. At that time glass jars were utilized, but it was not until
tin cans came into use later in England that commercial canning met with
much favor.
3. Both canning in the home and commercial canning have had many
drawbacks, chief among which was spoiling. It was believed that the
spoiling of canned foods was due to the presence of air in the jars or
cans, and it is only within the last 50 years that the true cause of
spoiling, namely, the presence of bacteria, has been understood. Since
that time methods of canning that are much more successful have been
originated, and the present methods are the result of the study of
bacteria and their functions in nature.
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