Canning and Fish Packaging Technology

Unit 1 - Canning as a method of preservation

1.1.Introduction to Canning
It has been a great struggle for man from the beginning not only to collect and produce food but also to preserve the produced food. Hence, several food preservation methods such as sun drying, salt curing and drying, smoking, chilling using ice etc. were developed from the very early days of civilization. The practice of keeping the food in metal/glass containers and heat processing came into existence in the late 18th century. This process of preservation is referred as canning, which is the verb form of the word ‘can’ which means a metal container.