Food preservation has been followed in all cultures at different points in time.

Nature had to be
harnessed for man to survive. From the ancient art of sun drying, to modern, hi-tech
dehydrators, the journey has been a long one.
A major milestone in the history of food preservation was the 19th century.

French conqueror Napoleon who started the search for better methods of preserving food by
offering a vast sum of money to those who devised safer and dependable methods of preserving
food.
It was French chemist Nicolas Appert who came up with the solution to the problem. He found
that sealing food in a container that was airtight could save food from rotting. Five decades later,
Frenchman Louis Pasteur discovered the link between the presence of microorganisms and the
spoiling of food.
During the olden days, people in the Eastern countries where heat and humidity were high and
preserving food was difficult, used unusual methods of preserving food. This includes wrapping
foodstuffs in dried leaves and burying it in hot sands to dry further. Only a century back, those
living in polar regions with freezing temperatures would create caches of food using freezing as a
method to preserve meat they hunted.

Decades later, Native Americans in northern America would use smoke from fire to dry meats,
fish, herbs or veggies. Peruvian Indians dried potatoes by freezing them for the duration of the
entire night.
The 19th century marked a turning point in the history of food preservation, as people learnt to
preserve fruit caramelized in sugar, and salted veggies and nuts.

~500,000 BC Fire Cooking

12,000 BC Sun Drying
600 AD Jam Preparation
1400 AD Curing
1784 AD Refrigeration
1809 AD Canning
1871 AD Pasteurization
1945 AD Vacuum Packing
2000+ AD Chemical Preservatives