This Day in History November 3, 1952

Tweet

Well, today's fact celebrates someone who made my dinner possible.  Quite seriously.  The man in the picture was Clarence Birdseye (I did not know that brand was actually named after a person!).  He was born in 1886, and he was a scientist who spent some time in the Arctic.  It was there that he began to discover how to effectively freeze foods.  He discovered the food frozen slowly was not able to be eaten, but food frozen quickly was perfectly fine to eat.  It was fish that first led him to this discovery.

According to various reputable websites, it was on this day in 1952 that he first marketed this frozen food:

While he was not the first to freeze foods, he developed the highly effective process that preserves the original flavor of the food as much as possible.

Birdseye was quite a businessman, and I could spend a lot of time talking about so many things he did.  He was responsible for marketing frozen foods in such a way that people finally began to buy them.  By the 1950's, frozen food sales exceeded one billion.  (Did you read that? The 1950's?  Billion?  Can you even imagine what the equivalent of that would be now?)

So because I used frozen peas in my dinner tonight, I can thank Birdseye.  No, it was not his brand, but I would say that I can still thank him.  You know how it is.  First the brand name,  then the generic!

He is a fascinating person, and if you would like to read more about him, follow these links:
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory/November-3
http://www.sciencecontrol.com/clarence-birdseye-biography-1886%E2%80%931956.html
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/clarence-birdseye/