Tuesday, October 1, 1935:

HEINZ & Company in Australia begins producing tinned baked beans.

The process of canning food was developed by Frenchman Nicolas Appert in the 1790s and patented by Englishman Peter Durand in 1810. From 1814, canned foods began to be sent from Britain to its outlying colonies. The first tinned goods reached Australia in 1815. Australia’s first canning operation commenced in 1846, when Sizar Elliot opened a small canning factory in Sydney’s Charlotte Place, now Grosvenor Street. Australia’s early explorers relied considerably on canned foods during their journeys. By 1869, Queensland manufacturers were exporting over one million kilograms of tinned meat annually, while SPC in Shepparton produced almost half a million cans of fruit in 1917. Ardmona began producing tinned fruit in 1925, while the Edgell & Sons factory at Bathurst first started canning asparagus in 1926. Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce was first produced by Heinz & Company on October 1, 1935.