Clarence Birdseye

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birdseye's double belt freezer (US Patent #1,773,079)

Food Portal

Clarence Birdseye (December 9, 1886 - October 7, 1956), is considered the founder of the modern frozen food industry.

Birdseye was born in Brooklyn in New York City. He became interested in the preservation of food by freezing while working as a field naturalist for the United States government in Labrador, Canada, between 1912-1915, a job he had taken to help pay for his education as a biology major at Amherst College. There he noticed that fish that are very quickly frozen will appear fresh upon thawing.

In 1922 Birdseye conducted fish-freezing experiments at the Clothel Refrigerating Company, then established his own company, Birdseye Seafoods Inc., to freeze fish fillets via chilled air. In 1924, however, his company went bankrupt due to lack of consumer interest in the product. That same year he developed an entirely new process for commercially viable quick-freezing: pack fish in cartons, then freeze the contents between two refrigerated surfaces under pressure. Birdseye created a new company, General Seafood Corporation, to promote this new approach.

In 1925 his General Seafood Corporation moved to Gloucester, Massachusetts. There it employed Birdseye's newest invention, the double belt freezer, in which cold brine chilled a pair of stainless steel belts carrying packaged fish so the fish froze extremely quickly. His invention subsequently issued as US Patent #1,773,079, and marked the beginning of today's frozen foods industry. Birdseye then began to take out a series of patents on quick-freezing, whereby foods are frozen so quickly that only small ice crystals can form and cell walls are not damaged. In 1927 he began to extend the process to quick-freezing of meat, poultry, fruit, and vegetables.

In 1929 Birdseye sold his company and patents for $22 million to Goldman Sachs and the Postum Company, which eventually became General Foods Corporation, and which founded the Birds Eye Frosted Food Company. In 1930 the company began sales experiments in 18 retail stores around Springfield, Massachusetts to test consumer acceptance of quick-frozen foods. The initial product line featured 26 items, including 18 cuts of frozen meat, spinach and peas, a variety of fruits and berries, blue point oysters, and fish fillets. Consumer acceptance was strong, and today this experiment is considered the birth of retail frozen foods. The "Birds Eye" name remains a leading frozen-food brand.

A charter member of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in 1939, he received the Babcock-Hart Award in 1949. Birdseye would be posthumously inducted into Food Engineering's Hall of Fame in 2003.