This book describes the history of food preservation from its ancient origins in traditional smoked, fermented, pickled and dried products, through bottled fruits of the 17th century and the establishment of commercial enterprises to cater for mariners in the early 19th century, to the provision of preserved foods as a normal item of diet at the end of the last century.
Until the late 19th century, the technology of food preservation was far in advance of knowledge of its scientific basis in bacteriology. The book also traces the development of food bacteriology from the early observations of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek until the technology and its scientific basis were united in the early years of this century.