Processed food available today can generally be divided into three categories: food preserved according to ancient techniques, such as fermentation, pickling (see pickle), salting, and smoking; food industrially processed according to modern techniques, such as canning, mechanical refrigeration, and various dehydration techniques; and high value-added, wholly manufactured foods, such as margarine, instant coffee, and candy bars. Canning was a bridging technology that facilitated the transformation of food preservation from the basic methods known for ages, to highly complex, industrial processes characteristic of the current food system (Thompson and Cowan, 1995).
Since the early 19th century, industrial food processing has begun to play an important role in the diet of an increasing number of people. Canned food, which Goody considers along with refrigeration as the two pillars of industrial cuisine (Goody, 1982), was at first a rarity targeted at very specific groups of consumers who depended on long-lasting food supply, such as sea voyagers, explorers, armed forces, and expatriate western communities at remote corners of the world. However, from the 1920s onward, aided by the modernization of transport and retailing, canned food began to enter the daily diet of the general population. Automation of manufacture, which became increasingly important in the industry from the late 19th century, helped to lower the cost of canned food and ultimately led to mass production, and consumption.
Warfare has from the very outset played a prominent role in the popularization of canning. The method of the Parisian confectioner Nicolas Appert, on which the modern industry depends, was developed on the basis of earlier practices and devices in response to an appeal of the French government for solutions in providing the army with long-life and easy to transport food. War continued to propel the production as well as consumption of canned food in various times and locations (e.g. Wilde, 1988; Bruegel, 2002). As canned food could be eaten out of season and out of place, and securely transported over great distances, canning technology seriously contributed to the strength of the western armies and navies, and therefore indirectly fostered western territorial expansion.
Imperialism constituted a major force that led to the global spread of canning. Canned food became a staple of western expatriate communities from Shanghai to Belize, not only allowing them to retain their distinctive food patterns but also protecting them from the potential danger of contagion through food. High prestige of canned food, deriving from its association with western communities, facilitated its adoption by local élites and, ultimately, among larger sections of non-western populations (Den Hartog, 2002; Wilk, 2002).
Not only the consumption, but also the production of canned food extended from Europe to other parts of the globe. The east coast of the United States was the first production site that developed on the other side of the Atlantic. Greatly boosted by the Civil War, by the end of the 19th century the American canners dominated the global industry. Canning of meat has also developed in Australia, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay (Collins, 1924). By the 1920s, Japanese products began to establish themselves on the global market as well. Canned abalone—exported to China—was the first export article of major importance, but was soon overshadowed by spider crab caught by the Japanese in the waters of Hokkaido, Kamchatka, Southern Sakhalin, and northern Korea. Tuna in oil and pilchards in tomato sauce followed. However, the biggest success story of them all was canned mandarin oranges. Contrary to earlier products which were copies of foreign originals, canned mandarins were a Japanese invention, inspired by a new technology of peeling and cleaning citrus fruits developed by American grapefruit canners. Up to 90% of mandarins exported during the 1930s were shipped to Great Britain, the world's largest importer of canned food at the time (Johnston, 1976).
As Simon Naylor convincingly argued, the canning of food was a decisive moment in the growth of globalization. ‘The ability to move, store, sell, and consume food effectively and safely between sites around the globe greatly enhanced the possibility of a global marketplace’ (Naylor, 2000). Due to the fact that capital costs for setting up a cannery were minimal, canning technology was able to spread relatively quickly wherever fresh produce was available. Technology of canning has not only played a critical role in extending the shelf life of foodstuffs, but was critical in the formation of contemporary consumption patterns and their globalization.
Katarzyna J. Cwiertka is a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University. Her research focuses on the production and consumption of food in 20th-century Japan and Korea. She is the editor of Asian Food: The Global and the Local, the author of the forthcoming monograph on Japanese national cuisine, and is currently working on a book about the modernization of Korean foodways.
Bruegel, Martin (2002), ‘How the French Learned to Eat Canned Food, 1809–1930s’, in Belasco and Scranton (2002).
Collins, James H. (1924), The Story of Canned Foods, New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.
Goody, Jack (1982), Cooking, Cuisine and Class, Cambridge: CUP.
Johnston, James P. (1976), ‘The Development of the Food-Canning Industry in Britain during the Inter-War Period’, in Oddy and Miller (1976).
Naylor, Simon (2000), ‘Spacing the Can: Empire, Modernity and the Globalisation of Food’, Environment and Planning, A 32.
Thompson, Susan, and Cowan, J. (1995), ‘Durable Food Production and Consumption in the World Economy’, in McMichael (1995).
Wilde, Mark William (1988), ‘Industrialization of Food Processing in the United States, 1860–1960’, Delaware: Ph.D. dissertation.
Wilk, Richard R. (2002), ‘Food and Nationalism: The Origins of “Belizean Food” ’, in Belasco and Scranton (2002).
