<P> Based on Appert's methods of food preservation, the tin can process was allegedly developed by Frenchman Philippe de Girard, who came to London and used British merchant Peter Durand as an agent to patent his own idea in 1810 . Durand did not pursue food canning himself, selling his patent in 1811 to Bryan Donkin and John Hall, who were in business as Donkin Hall and Gamble, of Bermondsey . Bryan Donkin developed the process of packaging food in sealed airtight cans, made of tinned wrought iron . Initially, the canning process was slow and labour - intensive, as each large can had to be hand - made, and took up to six hours to cook, making canned food too expensive for ordinary people . </P> <P> The main market for the food at this stage was the British Army and Royal Navy . By 1817 Donkin recorded that he had sold £ 3000 worth of canned meat in six months . In 1824 Sir William Edward Parry took canned beef and pea soup with him on his voyage to the Arctic in HMS Fury, during his search for a northwestern passage to India . In 1829, Admiral Sir James Ross also took canned food to the Arctic, as did Sir John Franklin in 1845 . Some of his stores were found by the search expedition led by Captain (later Admiral Sir) Leopold McLintock in 1857 . One of these cans was opened in 1939, and was edible and nutritious, though it was not analysed for contamination by the lead solder used in its manufacture . </P> <P> During the mid-19th century, canned food became a status symbol amongst middle - class households in Europe, being something of a frivolous novelty . Early methods of manufacture employed poisonous lead solder for sealing the cans, which may have worsened the disastrous outcome of the 1845 Franklin expedition to chart and navigate the Northwest Passage . </P> <P> Increasing mechanization of the canning process, coupled with a huge increase in urban populations across Europe, resulted in a rising demand for canned food . A number of inventions and improvements followed, and by the 1860s smaller machine - made steel cans were possible, and the time to cook food in sealed cans had been reduced from around six hours to thirty minutes . </P>

When did canned food first reached the shops