Food canning and heat treatment is currently the most important application in the world for the commercial preservation of food. It involves dispensing the food in a container that is hermetically sealed to be impermeable to liquids, gases, and microorganisms before being subject to sufficient heat to inactivate toxins, enzymes, and undesirable microorganisms.
This article reviews the main causes and consequences of spoilage of canned foods, namely prespoilage or incipient spoilage, histamine spoilage, underprocessing, thermophilic spoilage, and postprocessing contamination. The conditions leading to each case of spoilage are reviewed and preventative approaches are presented, including the broad lines of a quality assurance program for food canning.