Composite Foods and Ready Meals

Abstract

In the two centuries since Nicholas Appert filed his revolutionary patent for the preservation of food by heating it in closed containers, the food industry has made enormous progress towards two objectives:

• (i) To conserve individual items of food so that they may be kept in good or perfect condition from the times and places where they are relatively abundant until they can be consumed at other times and in other places where they would not otherwise be available;

• (ii) To maximize the commercial efficiency of production.