SIC 2033 Canned Fruits, Vegetables, Preserves, Jams, and Jellies

SIC 2033

This industry includes establishments primarily engaged in canning fruits, vegetables, and fruit and vegetable juices; and in manufacturing ketchup and similar tomato sauces, or natural and imitation preserves, jams, and jellies. Establishments primarily engaged in canning seafood are classified in SIC 2091: Canned and Cured Fish and Seafoods; and those manufacturing canned specialties, such as baby foods and soups, except seafood, are classified in SIC 2032: Canned Specialties.

NAICS CODE(S)

311421

Fruit and Vegetable Canning

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

By the mid-2000s, the food processing industry, including canned fruits and vegetables, accounted for nearly 13 percent of the value of goods produced each year. In the fruit and vegetable segment, that translated to about seven billion pounds of canned products. Despite the numbers, the overall market continued its decline in favor of fresh and frozen products.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, tomatoes, sweet corn, snap beans, green peas, and cucumbers for pickling were the five most-processed vegetables in the industry. Production costs of canned goods consisted of payments to farmers, container and label costs, labor, and fuel for transportation. Insurance, rental payments, and machinery costs also contributed to production costs. An enhanced global market starting in the early 2000s contributed to stronger export volume, tempered by price volatility due to continued weakness of the U.S. dollar.

BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT

Napoleon is credited with saying, "An army marches on its stomach." Whether he said this or not, he knew the importance of supplying his troops with adequate wholesome food for a successful military campaign. When the governing French Directorate offered a prize in 1795 to the citizen who found a way to keep food fresh during campaigns, Napoleon supported the project. Fourteen years later, in 1810, Emperor Napoleon would award the prize to Nicholas Appert, an obscure French confectioner and chef, whose accomplishment secured his place in history.

Appert theorized that when food is heated in a container with no air in it, the food would keep. He cooked foods in cork-stopped bottles in boiling water, perfecting his methods. Proof of his success came when Appert's preserved fruits and vegetables were sent around the world on sailing ships and remained edible. Two months after Appert published his procedures, English merchant Peter Durand applied to King George III for a patent for a "Method of Preserving Animal Food, Vegetable Food, or Other Perishable Articles a Long Time from Perishing or Becoming Useless." Durand's use of tin canisters in his process revolutionized food packaging and launched the canning industry as we know it. Captain Edward Perry took tinned foods on his Arctic expeditions in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Tinned pea soup and beef left behind by his party were recovered and eaten in 1911, and tins of veal and carrots from Perry's 1824 expedition were found to have been safely preserved when they were opened more than 100 years later, in 1939.

Around 1822, tinned foods came to the United States, and the first American patent for tin containers was granted three years later. By the mid-1800s, vegetable processing in steel canisters coated with tin to protect against rust and erosion became widespread, and the words "tin can" and "canning" entered the language. Canning came to mean sterilizing food by heat and sealing it in airtight metal or glass containers. Canning activities were undertaken both in food processing plants and in households across the country.

In 1861, canners began adding calcium chloride to the water in which they cooked their closed cans. This enabled canners to use higher temperatures, which shortened production time and increased production volume. The improved technology came just in time for the Civil War, which spurred a demand for canned products. By the time the war was over, production of canned foods had grown six times over, and Americans had learned to trust the quality of canned products.

The importance of canned foods to the military was emphasized during World War II, when two-thirds of the food supplies for the United States and allied forces came in cans. When the Japanese capture of Malaya cut off important sources of tin, conservation of that metal on the home front became critical. At the same time, glass containers, which had previously been used for some foods, were often used in place of tin cans.

The advent of a wide variety of food package choices in the 1980s led to a decline in the sales of canned food in metal cans. Microwave-safe plastic containers, high-barrier film pouches, and form-fill and seal cups were some of the choices offered to consumers. Furthermore, some advertisers claimed superior freshness for foods packed in glass jars. In 1986 the Can Manufacturers Institute, the National Food Processors Association, and the American Steel Institute formed the Canned Food Information Council (CFIC) to restore canned foods' former level of acceptance and popularity, while disseminating positive information about the nutritional quality and appetizing nature of foods in metal cans.

An interesting sub-segment of the industry, officially formed in 1999, is the canning of vegetables and fruits through the use of combined heat and power (CHP). Jointly coordinated with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the CHP segment of the canned fruit and vegetable industry produced about $15 million worth of shipments in the mid-2000s, capturing about 3 percent of the total market.

Regulations

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)...

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