Packaging of food products has seen a vast transformation in technology usage and application from the Stone Age to the industrial revolution:
7000 BC: The adoption of pottery and glass which saw industrialization around 1500 BC.
1700s: The first manufacturing production of tinplate was introduced in England (1699) and in France (1720). Afterwards, the Dutch navy start to use such packaging to prolong the preservation of food products.
1804: Nicolas Appert, in response to inquiries into extending the shelf life of food for the French Army, employed glass bottles along with thermal food treatment. Glass has been replaced by metal cans in this application.However, there is still an ongoing debate about who first introduced the use of tinplates as food packaging
1870: The use of paper board was launched and corrugated materials patented.
1880s: First cereal packaged in a folding box by Quaker Oats.
1890s: The crown cap for glass bottles was patented by William Painter.
1950s: The bag-in-box system was invented by American chemist William R. Scholle – initially for acid liquids, but quickly also used for food liquids.
1960s: Development of the two-piece drawn and wall-ironed[further explanation needed] metal cans in the US, along with the ring-pull opener and the Tetra Brik Aseptic carton package.
1970s: The barcode system was introduced in the retail and manufacturing industry. PET plastic blow-mold bottle technology, which is widely used in the beverage industry, was introduced.
1990s: The application of digital printing on food packages became widely adopted.
Plastic packaging saw its inaugural use during World War II, even though materials employed in its manufacturing (such as cellulose nitrate, styrene and vinyl chloride) were discovered in the 1800s.