Cardboard cartons introduced for chopped tomatoes could see the end to 200 years of history
Sainsbury's will this week switch its premium chopped tomatoes from tin cans to cartons. The move could spell the demise of the tin can, which has been used to preserve foods for nearly 200 years.

Bottled goods have already experienced the switch to the Tetra Pak solution and it is now possible to store lumpy foods in cardboard containers. Sainsbury's will be packaging four varieties of chopped tomatoes using Tetra Pak's Tetra Recart container.

Sainsbury's canned buying manager Les Rowse said: 'The cardboard packs don't need a tin opener and fit better in the cupboard and fridge. Unlike tin cans, the cartons are made mainly from a renewable resource, trees, and with a purpose-built carton recycling plant now in operation in the UK, they can also be recycled.'

The cartons are also cheaper to manufacture and transport. Once opened, half-finished containers allow food to be kept in the fridge for longer, because the lining of tin cans taints food once exposed to the air.

Six things you didn't know about cans:

· The tin can was invented by British merchant Peter Durand in 1810. They were very thick and had to be hammered open

· 48 years later, Ezra J Warner of Connecticut invented the first can-opener

· 3 out of 4 cans in the UK are made of steel. The others are made of aluminium

· 2 billion steel cans are recycled in the UK each year

· Cans are 40 per cent lighter than they were 30 years ago

· It takes as much energy to make 4 recycled steel cans as it does to make one new one

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