Clarence Birdseye
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| Clarence Frank Birdseye II | |
| Born | December 9, 1886 Brooklyn |
|---|---|
| Died | October 7, 1956 (aged 69) Gramercy Park Hotel Manhattan |
| Known for | Frozen food |
| Parents | Clarence Frank Birdseye I Ada Jane Underwood |
Clarence Frank Birdseye II (December 9, 1886 - October 7, 1956) was an American inventor who is considered the founder of the modern frozen food industry.
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[edit] Early life
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Birdseye was born in Brooklyn in New York City. He became interested in food preservation by freezing while working as a field naturalist for the United States government in Labrador, Canada, between 1912-1915. He was working to pay for his education as a biology major at Amherst College. He was taught by the Inuit how to ice fish under very thick ice. In -40°C weather, he discovered that the fish he caught froze almost instantly, and when thawed, tasted fresh. He knew immediately that the frozen seafood sold in New York was of lower quality than the frozen fish of Labrador.
Conventional freezing methods of the time were commonly done at higher temperatures, and thus the freezing occurred much more slowly, giving ice crystals more time to grow. We now know that fast freezing produces smaller ice crystals, which cause less damage to the tissue structure.
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 at -45°F (-43°C). In 1924 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 method.
[edit] Industrial development
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, freezing the fish quickly. His invention subsequently issued as US Patent #1,773,079, marking the beginning of today's frozen foods industry. Birdseye then took out patents on machinery which cooled more quickly so 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 [ [patent]]s 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. Birdseye continued to work with the company, developing frozen food technology. 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 f eatured 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. He died on October 7, 1956 of a heart attack at the Gramercy Park Hotel. He was 69 years.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ "Clarence Birdseye Is Dead at 69. Inventor of Frozen-Food Process. Developed Method for Quick Freezing and Also Devised System for Dehydrating.", New York Times (October 9, 1956). Retrieved on 2008-07-16. "Clarence Birdseye, the inventor of a process for quickfreezing foods that made his name a household word in the United States, died Sunday night of a heart ailment in his residence at the Gramercy Park Hotel. He was 89 years old."
[edit] Further reading
- "Clarence Birdseye." Food Engineering. September 2003. p. 66.
- About.com biography
