Nicolas Appert was famous for his invention of airtight food preservation system. He was famously known as the Father of the canning. A confectioner and a chef by profession in Paris, he was born on 17 November, 1749. He began his experiments with all kinds of food preservatives. Finally after 14-15 years, he succeeded. He was awarded 12000 Francs for his discovery where he used to seal the food products into glass jars and put a cork on the mouth of the bottle or jar and put them in boiling water.
The term canning is sometimes referred to as ‘appertisation’ in honour of his invention. He actually demonstrated live food preservation by sealing a sheep publically. He used all the money he received as an award to establish a commercial company of his own ‘House of Appert’ which was capable of producing sealed products like dairy products, beef, pork, jelly, etc. His prominent invention was based on the fact that heat kills bacteria, a fact which was later proved by Louis Pasteur. He died on 1 June, 1841.
