History and innovation of tinned cans

Appert canning technique was improved by the work of British scientists Bryan Donkin and John Hall. They created the first tinned canned food in 1812.

The first cans were handmade of steel coated with tin. Durand’s early process produced 10 cans per day; modern can-making machines can produce 1000 or more per minutes.

Other innovations include quick-opening cans with pull tabs, as are used for soft drinks, sardines and nuts; cans that are opened with a slotted key that comes with the can, as are used for sardines and cured hams; pasteurized cans that use a propellant to dispense whipped cream and cheese spreads; and extruded or drawn cans, as are used for soft drinks, tuna and sardines.

The extruded cans has several advantages over the conventional can, a major one being the elimination of the bottom and side seams, which reduces the probability of seam failures eliminates the use of lead, (used in side seam) and permits more stable stacking in shelves, requiring somewhat less vertical space.

Two basic types of allowed metals are used in food packaging: steel and aluminium. Steel is used primarily to make rigid cans, where aluminium is used to make cans as well as thin aluminium foils and coatings.

Until a few years ago nearly all steel used for cans was coated with a thin layer of tin to inhibit corrosion; hence, the name ‘tin can’.
History and innovation of tinned cans

History of Aseptic Packaging

History of Aseptic Packaging
Aseptic packaging is an area of food packaging in which a food product and a package are commercially sterilized separately and combined in a commercially sterile environment.

The aseptic processing and packaging process has seen tremendous growth and remarkable advances since its inception in the 1940s.

The first invention was likely a device for carrying food. Hunters and gatherers needed to lighten the burden of bringing food back to a central camp.

These early camps were undoubtedly located near water, because the means of transporting liquid was still long way off.

As population grew and were forced to move father away from a secure source of water, the need to carry liquids became urgent. Skins and shells, followed by pottery and ceramics and then glass, metals and plastics, became the materials needed for storing, preserving and transporting liquids.

The used of glass containers for food dates back to 1200 BC. Glass proved to be particularly useful type of food packaging, because it did not react with food and was a highly effective barrier against oxygen, a common cause of food spoilage or deterioration.

Packaging food in paper began around 200 BC , when the Chinese used a type of paper made from tree bark to package foods.

Paper products evolved slowly until the late nineteenth century, when advances made during the industrial revolution helped make the production of paper bags and other products possible.

Canning truly revolutionized food packaging. There is evidence that containers made of tin-plated iron was used as early as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but the use of these containers was not widespread, because they were considered poisonous to food.

In 1989 the Institute of Food Technologist an organization of food scientists devoted to improving the production and distribution of food, selected aseptic packaging as “the most significant food science innovation in the past fifty years”.

Ruben Rausing in Sweden reportedly conceived the concept for holding milk in a container made form a paperboard composite.

The original package had a tetrahedral shape and was called a Tetra Pak.

This new technology was married to aseptic technology, and a new industry was born. The box-shaped package that is so widely available is a laminate of six layers of three materials: paperboard 70% polyethylene 24%, and aluminum 6 %.

Innovations in plastic technology and plasma discharge silica coating technology offer the promise that more foods will be packaged in efficient septic packages during the twenty first century.
History of Aseptic Packaging

Aseptic Packaging

Aseptic Packaging
The first invention was likely a device for carrying food. Hunters and gatherers needed to lighten the burden of bringing food back to a central camp.

These early camps were undoubtedly located near water, because the means of transporting liquid was still long way off.

As population grew and were forced to move father away from a secure source of water, the need to carry liquids became urgent. Skins and shells, followed by pottery and ceramics and then glass, metals and plastics, became the materials needed for storing, preserving and transporting liquids.

In 1989 the Institute of Food Technologist an organization of food scientists devoted to improving the production and distribution of food, selected aseptic packaging as “the most significant food science innovation in the past fifty years”.

Most consumers do not recognize the term “aseptic packaging,” but they instantly recognize this packaging concept as the familiar “juice box.”

This revolutionary packaging system first appeared in US supermarkets in the 1970s. Aseptic packaging is defined as “the filling of a commercially sterile product into sterile containers under aseptic conditions and sealing of the containers so that the reinjection is prevented”.

Aseptic packaging is more than just as container; it is a system that allows food manufacturer to fill a sanitized package with a sterile food product in a hygienic environment.

The word “aseptic” means that unwanted organisms have been eliminated from the packing system.

Ruben Rausing in Sweden reportedly conceived the concept for holding milk in a container made form a paperboard composite.

The original package had a tetrahedral shape and was called a Tetra Pak.

This new technology was married to aseptic technology, and a new industry was born. The box-shaped package that is so widely available is a laminate of six layers of three materials: paperboard 70% polyethylene 24%, and aluminum 6 %.

Each layer of material serves a specific purpose. The single layer of paperboard provides mechanical rigidity.

The aluminum foil layer acts as a gas and light barrier.

The outer polyethylene layer protect the ink layer and enables the package flaps to be sealed.

Two inner layers of polyethylene provide a liquid barrier and another layer binds the aluminum to the paperboard.

When it is sealed, the container can preserved milk, soy beverages, juice, soup, sauce, wine, tea and many other products for months without refrigeration or artificial preservatives.

Aseptic processing is not limited to retail food items. Aseptic bulk storage and transportation systems that can hold up to 1 million gallons of products such as orange juice have been designed.

These large commercial systems allowed food manufacturers to harvest fruit and vegetables at optimum growing periods, partially process the food, and store it for final processing at a later time.

Innovations in plastic technology and plasma discharge silica coating technology offer the promise that more foods will be packaged in efficient septic packages during the twenty first century.
Aseptic Packaging

Additive and Packaging

Additive and Packaging
A few additives, such as bleaching agents used in flour, can promote oxidation and lead to small losses of sensitive vitamins. However, other food additives, particularly the antioxidants, have protective effects on vitamins. The common antioxidants butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E), protect vitamins A and D and beta-carotene and slow oxidative destruction of fats. Vitamin C can stabilize vitamins A and E, thiamin, and folic acid by inhibiting oxidative reaction promoted by iron and copper.

In addition to the benefits of using antioxidants, a number of other techniques are utilized to protect the nutritive quality of our foods. These techniques include use of sequestering agents (compounds which binds to minerals and prevent them from enhancing oxidation), control of moisture content, application of protective gelatin coatings to vitamins prior to addition to foods, use of aerosol supercoatings on products such as breakfast cereal, and use packaging to protect the food from the atmosphere and light.
Additive and Packaging