Birdseye, Clarence

Birdseye, Clarence, 1886–1956, American inventor and founder of the frozen food industry, b. Brooklyn, N. Y., studied at Amherst College. In 1912 he went to Labrador on a fur-trading expedition and when he returned to the United States in 1916 began experimenting with freezing foods, aiming at commercial application. He developed a method for freezing fish and in 1924 he was one of the founders of the General Foods Company, which began manufacturing various frozen food products. In 1929 the company was bought by the Postum Company (later the General Foods Corp.) for $22 million. By 1949, Birdseye had perfected the anhydrous freezing process, reducing the time needed for the operation from 18 hr to 1 1/2 hr.