PASTEUR THE PIONEER
The word ‘pasteurisation’ comes from the man who discovered it in 1865. Louis Pasteur, a French chemist and microbiologist, invented and patented the process after studying the science behind fermentation and attempting to tackle the ‘disease’ of wine, which was destroying vineyards in France. Having discovered a microbe that converts alcohol into vinegar, called Myoderma aceti, and publishing his ‘germ theory’ in 1861, Pasteur was tasked by Napoleon III to understand the disease that was turning wine into vinegar. By experimenting with foods that had been exposed to the air following a period of heating and those that had not, Pasteur theorised that germs in the air were responsible for the spoilage of certain foods and wine. He discovered that heating wine to a temperature above 55 degrees Celsius killed microorganisms and extended the wine’s life before it spoiled.