Nicholas Appert, principal inventor of the
process. Fellow Frenchman Joseph Colin
started canning sardines a little over a decade
later; American fishermen canned oysters in
Delaware around 1840 and Pacific salmon
around 1865, and Italian immigrants founded
the canned tuna industry around San Diego in
- Today, salmon, tuna, and sardines are
the most popular canned seafoods worldwide.
Most canned fish are heated twice: once
before the cans are sealed, to cause the
inevitable cooking losses and allow the
moisture (as well as flavor and healthful oils)
to be drained away, so that the can contents
won’t be watery; and once after the cans are
sealed to sterilize the contents, usually under
pressurized steam at about 240ºF/115ºC. This
second treatment is sufficient to soften fish
bones, so fish canned with its bones is an
excellent source of calcium (fresh fish
contains about 5 milligrams of calcium per 4
oz/100 g; canned salmon contains 200 to 250).