What’s in your freezer? Gone are the days when most people’s refrigerators had only ice cubes and maybe some ice cream. Nowadays, most of our refrigerators contain packets of our favourite frozen foods that taste delicious and can be prepared quickly. Many people deep fry these snacks or use an air fryer, often in the evenings, for making quick and tasty frozen snacks like French fries, pizzas, chicken nuggets, potato wedges, bao buns, momos, burger patties samosas, kebabs etc. But have you ever thought about who came up with this idea of frozen foods and how were these invented? Let’s dive into the interesting history of the invention of frozen foods.
Ancient Techniques Of Preserving Food By Freezing
According to Fresh From The Freezer, the idea of freezing food for preservation dates back as far as 3,000 BC. The ancient Chinese used to preserve food through the cold winter using ice cellars. The ancient Romans stored supplies in underground chambers filled with ice and snow.
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Inspiration For The Modern Frozen Food
The modern way of freezing food has been around since the 20th century, developed by Clarence Birdseye. According to Britannica, Birdseye went to Labrador, Canada, in 1912, where he took up work as a fur trader.
According to Frozen Food Europe magazine, Clarence Birdseye saw how the people in Labrador froze fresh fish and meat quickly in the Arctic temperatures. The locals had discovered that freezing the fish this way kept it at its peak quality and locked in its freshness. This helped them preserve the fish, which was necessary because of the difficulty of obtaining fresh food in the winter. This solution spurred Birdseye’s imagination to invent packaged frozen food.
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How Birdseye Invented Frozen Food For Retailing
Birdseye returned to the US, experimented with the freezing process and discovered how to freeze foods without damaging the food’s cells so that it still tastes fresh and delicious after defrosting.
According to the ‘Handbook of Frozen Foods‘ as shared by Eater, Birdseye placed food between two metallic plates at -13 degrees Fahrenheit against a low convection tunnel to flash-freeze the product.
Britannica adds that though his were not the first frozen foods, Birdseye’s freezing process was highly efficient and preserved the original taste of a variety of foods.
Exactly 100 years ago, in 1924, Birdseye helped found General Seafoods Company. He then began successfully selling quick-frozen foods that made him wealthy.
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Rise Of Frozen Food Consumption In The US
The original, flash-frozen foods included haddock fillets, 17 other cuts of meat and fish, spinach, loganberries and raspberries, shares Eater. The company advertised June peas “as gloriously green as any you will see next summer.”
By World War II (1939 to 1945), canned goods were sent to soldiers overseas and Americans were encouraged to buy frozen foods. Post-war, between 1945 and 1946, Americans bought 800 million pounds of frozen food, Mark Kurlansky writes in Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man, shares Eater. By 1954, with the invention of the fish stick and the 98-cent TV dinner, frozen meals became an American staple.
