Why Modern Canned Food Doesn’t Spoil Over Time
The informative channel Simple Things – Surprising Histories explained why modern canned food doesn’t spoil, thanks to vacuum sealing and other innovations.
Today, we’re opening the lid on one of nthe greatest survival hacks in human history. How exactly does canned food defy nature? And why doesn’t it spoil?
The narrator further notes that this particular method of preserving food has a surprisingly long history, dating back to Napoleon in 1795.
Let’s rewind the clock to the year 1795. Napoleon Bonapart had a massive problem. His armies were conquering Europe, buthis soldiers were starving. Food simply spoiled too quickly on long military marches. Desperate, the French government offered a massive cash prize to anyone who could invent a reliable way to preserve food.
They also talk about how a simple modern process keeps canned food safe from toxic microbes, such as those that cause botulism, that thrive in oxygen-free environments.
To defeat it, modern canning uses pressure cookers. By increasing the pressure, factories heat the cans to around 240° F or 116° C. At this extreme temperature, even the toughest spores are completely annihilated.
