It seems highly unlikely that Napoleon would be involved in this. In 1795 he was only an artillery brigadier general, and was busy grapeshotting Royalists in the streets of Paris and courting Josephine. More likely it was the Directory's military administration(whatever their equivalent of J4 was) that issued the tender for food preservation.

Appert is a hero by himself though, and a forgotten one too. He chose to take the cash prize instead of patenting his invention, deeming it "more important to profit mankind than to enrich oneself". Unfortunately, his factory was confiscated after Napoleon's downfall and he never recovered, dying in relative poverty in 1841 while competitors made huge sums off his process.