Birdseye, Clarence

Two famous American companies made major contributions to food preservation in the early 20th century. Clarence Birdseye, known as the "father of frozen food," adapted a method of freezing food that he learned from Eskimos meat frozen in the extreme cold of midwinter actually keeps better than any other preserved meat, frozen or otherwise. In 1923, he perfected the process of flash-freezing foods under high pressure, and the modern frozen food industry was born. 

The Do not refreeze instruction originally came from Clarence Birdseye, the father of the frozen-vegetable industry. He wasn t worried about safety. He just didn t want people to remove his products from the freezer and then put them back, because this would cause textural damage and reduce sales. 

American businessman Clarence Birdseye revolutionized the food industry when he discovered that deep-frozen food tasted better than regular frozen food. In 1923, he developed the flash-freezing method of preserving food at below-freezing temperatures under pressure. The Father of Frozen Food first sold small-packaged foods to the public in 1930 under the name Birds Eye Frosted Foods. 

Quick freezing (Clarence Birdseye) Birdseye s quick-freezing process preserves food s flavor and texture better than previously used processes. 

A great demand was created for canned foods by World War I, which broke out shortly after the modern type of "sanitary" can had been developed. Similarly, World War II spurred the growth of the fledgling frozen foods industry which was started by the experiments of Clarence Birdseye in the 1920s. The war also fostered the use of convenience foods at home and eating out in restaurants as large numbers of homemakers went out to work in factories to help the war efforts. 

---