Pasteurization
- Year(s) Officially Discovered: 1860s
- Discovery Put Into Action: 1862
- Team/Person Behind The Discovery: Louis Pasteur
French Chemist & Biologist Louis Pasteur made one of the greatest discoveries in world history that we still use today. He was working with dairy products and wanted to figure out how to remove some of the things that made them intolerable for people as well as why they go bad so quickly. This was when he went into his lab and figured out how to stop the problem. He found that water and specific packaged or unpackaged foods could be treated with heat to completely destroy harmful pathogens.
His concept killed bad bacteria and ultimately extended the shelf life of several items. From here, we can eliminate the risk of disease but not kill the harmful bacterial spores. Therefore, one must apply the second round of heat. Upon doing this, numerous products (mostly dairy), are now safe to eat or drink for a long time after their shelf-life. Milk and Fruit Juice, for example, are safe to drink for life! Yet they might not taste great after a while. Louis would reference his concept as Pasteurization. We still employ it today, as it is one of the greatest discoveries ever!