interpack

Napoleon needed food for his troops. And – as we know – necessity is the mother of invention. The idea sounds very simple: you fill food into tin cans, close them and you then have a meal that can virtually be kept for ever. So he was effectively saved by tin cans.

185 years ago, on 19 January 1825, Thomas Kensett and Ezra Daggett from the USA filed a patent for their tin can. This move marked the beginning of a global success story enhanced even further by the invention of the can opener in 1855 – which meant you no longer needed a hammer and chisel to open the cans.

12,000 Gold Franks for Durability

However, the idea as such actually saw the light of day a long time before this: Napoleon Bonaparte was worried about the health of his men. At a certain point plundering no longer sufficed to feed the troops that were growing in number. Ultimately, more soldiers died of malnutrition than at the hands of the enemy. In the late 18th century Napoleon promised 12,000 gold franks to anyone who managed to make foodstuffs like meat, fruit and vegetables last longer. In 1790 French chef and confectioner François Nicolas Appert discovered the sterilisation process for food in bottles. To this end he used champagne bottles, which were not particularly handy and very fragile but metal working had not reached that state of maturity yet. Appert heated the food in the closed glass bottles to 100°C and subsequently sealed them hermetically so that many vitamins were also conserved. The invention was initially tested by the French navy. Even though many a bottle broke on the high seas, the contents of the intact containers was edible.

Benefactors of Mankind

In 1810 the confectioner was awarded the prize “for mastering the art of conserving all animal and vegetable substances in full freshness” and the honorary title “Benefactor of Mankind”. With the prize money he was able to open a factory back in 1812 where he produced cans made of tin. The cans made of tin plate were lighter and more stable than glass and sealed with lead. And his invention not only benefited the navy. Expeditions lasting several years like those to the polar regions became possible all of a sudden. At the 1851 World Expo in London a 38-year old “Appert’s” can was opened to prove that the contents was still edible even after such a long time. Following this resounding success European aristocracy, well-heeled industry tycoons and merchants were said to have had complete menus put together from tinned foods.

Later Louis Pasteur was able to prove with his experiments that it is often even sufficient to only briefly heat the food above 70°C. It no longer had to be boiled to remain intact and more vitamins were retained. Thanks to progress in scientific research more and more compounds could be derived and synthesized in pure form. The discovered substances were also tested for their antiseptic properties. As early as 1865 the aseptic effect of formic acid was described, in 1874 that of salicylic acid and in 1875 that of benzoic acid. To this day these acids are still in use as preservatives.

1900 saw in excess of 700 million cans being produced in the USA alone. Cans continued to be used by the military but they were in civilian use, too. According to British writer George Orwell, WWI would not have been possible without them. At the beginning of the last century the first industrial products were finally retailed in cardboard boxes and tin cans. Tin cans were the packaging per se at every grocery store. Over the same period tin cans and beverage cans also made their final breakthrough.

The first beer can was launched 75 years ago – on 25 January 1935 in the USA. But those wanting to drink the then brand-new “Krueger’s Beer” from the can needed a fair bit of physical strength: the cans weighed five times as much as today’s equivalents and had to be opened with a separate “dagger”. Today’s beverage cans are featherweights by comparison. Be it beer, coke, energy drinks, coffee mix beverages, green tea, exotic cocktails or wine – virtually all beverages are now available in cans. And the global community of supporters is still growing – in Europe alone some 53 billion beverage cans were sold in 2008.

There is no stopping research and development. Saving the environment, recycling and sustainability are the buzzwords of our days. The on-going “weight loss” of packaging is a key aspect helping sustainability. Today, food cans are approximately 25% lighter than 30 years ago. Add to this the fact that metal is considered the most frequently recycled material worldwide. In Europe 66% of the steel and 58% of the aluminium packaging is recycled. Current steel products consist of 56% recycled material, aluminium for packaging contains 50% recyclates. Although aluminium has been in commercial use for 150 years now, 75% of the primary aluminium is still in circulation today. This is how packaging manufacturers can make considerable energy savings: no wonder food and beverage can producers have reduced their energy consumption by 60% over the past 20 years cutting CO2 emissions by 50% while increasing their market volume by 57%.