Subject: frozen food

From: [email-masked] (David Menasce)
Date: 10 Mar 1994 14:59:59 GMT

Hi there, 
Does anyone know who had the idea of freezing food.
He's saved the life of all the kids whose mother can't cook!
Thanks

	David

e-mail: [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Jeffrey Fortescue)
Date: 10 Mar 94 13:24:03 -0500

> He's saved the life of all the kids whose mother can't cook!

Well, I would think the first humans to move out of African rift
valleys and into colder northern climes would have discovered
freezing food quite easily.  One imagines they had little choice.

However, since you seem to be referring to the "TV Dinner"
variety of frozen food you would first have to have a reliable
freezer (other than blocks of ice in the ice box) and I'm
sure someone else might know when that came about.

Clarence Birdseye (yes, he did exist!) is generally credited
with developing a reliable way to freeze food in small packages
that could be sold in a retail environment.  He was a government
worker and fur trader who went to labrador and noticed the
preservation of natural frozen foods.  He came back and worked
on perfecting the process...he starting selling frozen food
in the mid to late 20's I think.    The man held 300 patents
on all kinds of stuff according to the encyclopedia.

And yes, for a while he was PRESIDENT of Birds Eye Frosted Foods.

Jeff
-- 
--Jeff Fortescue, Aspiring Bread Baker
  Staff Librarian, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

	Efficiency of a practically flawless kind may be reached	
  naturally in the struggle for bread.  But there is something
  beyond--a higher point, a subtle and unmistakable touch of love
  and pride beyond mere skill; almost an inspiration which gives to  
  all work that finish which is almost art--which _is_ art.

					--Joseph Conrad

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From: [email-masked] (Lawrence Allen)
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 18:12:33 GMT

David Menasce ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Hi there, 
: Does anyone know who had the idea of freezing food.
: He's saved the life of all the kids whose mother can't cook!
: Thanks

: 	David

: e-mail: [email-masked]

The credit generally goes to Clarence Birdseye. At least, for the 
commercial process of frozen vegetables. And yes, that is 
the same Birdseye of "Birdseye foods".

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From: [email-masked] (George Suttle)
Date: 10 Mar 1994 17:31:30 GMT

>He's saved the life of all the kids whose mother can't cook!

Doubtless there were many contributors to the future misery of 
green-pea-hating kids, but the first commercially successful frozen food 
fellow was none other than Clarence Birdseye. Ergo the brand name.

He apparently got the idea for flash freezing from watching Inuit 
fishermen. (By the way, did you know that "Inuit" is plural? "Inik" 
refers to just one of the so-called "esquimaux.")

george

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From: [email-masked] (Jack Campin)
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 14:54:14 GMT

[email-masked] (Jeffrey Fortescue) wrote:
> [email-masked] (David Menasce) writes:
> Clarence Birdseye (yes, he did exist!) is generally credited with developing
> a reliable way to freeze food in small packages that could be sold in a
> retail environment.  He was a government worker and fur trader who went to
> labrador and noticed the preservation of natural frozen foods.  He came back
> and worked on perfecting the process...he starting selling frozen food in
> the mid to late 20's I think.

Refrigerated food transport is older than that.  What they taught me
at school in New Zealand is that it was invented there in the depression
of the late 1880s for shipping meat to Britain; meat was held just above
freezing for the whole voyage.

There is a book titled something close to "The History of Food
Preservation" (can't get the precise reference just now) that
ought to answer this question properly.
-- 
-- Jack Campin -- Room 1.36, Department of Computing & Electrical Engineering,
   Mountbatten Building, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh EH14 4AS
TEL: 031 449 5111 ext 4195         HOME: 031 556 5272        FAX: 031 451 3431
INTERNET: [email-masked]   BITNET: via UKACRL   BANG!net: via mcsun & uknet

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From: [email-masked] ("Mary Branscombe")
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 20:12:44 GMT

in the UK we began to freeze food in a big way during the (hhhmmmm) 
second world war - mainly fish. It didn;t take off until over here 
until they found a convenience food that got people going and that 
was the fish finger! This became horrifically popular (Ridley Scott 
made the adverts!) and actually drove the convenience food and TV 
dinner phenomenon over her. In the 1980's and 90's there's been a 
switch to fancier frozen dishes as part of the yuppification of 
supermarkets but if it makes it easier to buy ciabatta and parma 
ham I won't complain!

Mary MerryTail
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From: [email-masked] (Dan Cohen)
Date: 12 Mar 1994 02:50:09 -0500

In article <[email-masked]>,
David Menasce <[email-masked]> wrote:

:Does anyone know who had the idea of freezing food.
:He's saved the life of all the kids whose mother can't cook!

Something tells me the answer begins with 'Clarence'...

--dc
-- 

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