"One of the marvels of the age is the new quick freeze process... time ceases to exist for foods"
Better Homes and Gardens, September 1930
In 1912 Clarence Birdseye (1886-1956) 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°F (-4Q°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 -0.4°F (-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 -45.4°F (-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 to Goldman Sachs and the Postum Company, which became the General Foods Corporation and introduced the Birds Eye brand to the world.
