History of Frozen Food

 

Frozen Food For Foodie

In 1912 Clarence Birdseye was working as a field biologist in northern Canada when he was taught by Inuit people how to preserve fish by freezing under very thick ice at around -40 ° C. 

Frozen almost instantly , it tasted fresh when thawed days or weeks later . Birdseye realized that this fish was fresher than that sold in the fish markets in New York , which had also been frozen but slowly and at higher temperatures . He also saw that when food was frozen quickly , only small ice crystals formed in the cells , causing less damage to the texture . Frozen food will keep for several months , so long as it is stored at a constant temperature no higher than -18 ° C.

Birdseye joined the Clothel Refrigerating Company in 1922 where he worked on freezing techniques . He set up his own company , Birdseye Seafoods Inc. , in 1923 , to supply fish fillets that had been frozen to -43 ° C using chilled air . The company failed to sell enough , however , and was bankrupt only a year later . 

Undeterred , in 1924 Birdseye patented a new process for quick freezing . Fish was packed into wax cartons and frozen quickly , under pressure . Birdseye set up another company and turned his attention to marketing . His double - belt freezer , patented in 1925 , used brine to chill a pair of stainless steel belts carrying the fish so that it froze extremely quickly . 

Meat and vegetables could be prepared and frozen using the same technique . Birdseye sold his company and its many patents in 1929 for 22$ million doller to Goldman Sachs and the Postum Company , which became the General Foods Corporation and introduced the Birds Eye brand to the world.