It was actually the other way around. In the early years of the Napoleonic Wars the French government offered a 12,000 franc reward for the creation of a cheap and effective way to preserve large quantities of food (note: I've seen dates ranging from 1795-1805 for this).

A French confectionist by the name of Nicolas Appert observed that food cooked inside of a sealed glass jar wouldn't spoil until it was opened, and by 1809 he perfected this technique. Within the next year he published a book, entitled "The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances for Several Years" (google books) detailing his methods. He then created a factory called "The House of Appert" to produce bottled food using this method.

Edit: Tin canning was developed in the United Kingdom based on Appert's process by Philippe de Girard. He used Peter Durand to create a patent on this in 1810, and Durand sold his patent to Bryan Donkin and John Hall who then commercialized the process and sold canned goods to the British Army and Royal Navy. While canning started to see military usage around 1815 in the UK, Appert's developments in France weren't effectively put into use until after the Napoleonic Wars, and in 1814 his factory burned down.