Birdseye, Clarence

Clarence Birdseye, (born December 9, 1886, New York, New York, U.S.—died October 7, 1956, New York), American businessman and inventor best known for developing a process for freezing foods in small packages suitable for retailing.

Birdseye was raised in Brooklyn, New York, and from a young age was interested in the natural sciences. In 1906 he went to Amherst College to study biology; two years later he quit school, unable to afford college tuition. He soon after took a job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, working in New Mexico and Arizona. In 1912 Birdseye went to Labrador, where he took up work as a fur trader; he continued this work intermittently until 1917. In Labrador, people often froze food in the winter because of the difficulty of obtaining fresh food; this solution to their problem spurred Birdseye’s imagination.

After returning to the United States, he began to experiment and, in 1924, helped found General Seafoods Company. Five years later he began selling his quick-frozen foods, a successful line of products that made him wealthy. Birdseye’s process consisted of rapid freezing of packaged food between two refrigerated metal plates. Though his were not the first frozen foods, Birdseye’s freezing process was a highly efficient one that preserved the original taste of a variety of foods, including fish, fruits, and vegetables. In 1929 Birdseye’s company was bought by Postum, Inc., which changed its own name to the General Foods Corporation, retaining Birdseye as a consultant. From 1930 to 1934 Birdseye was president of Birds Eye Frosted Foods and from 1935 to 1938 of Birdseye Electric Company.

Birdseye held nearly 300 patents. Besides his frozen food process, he developed infrared heat lamps, a recoil-less harpoon gun for taking whales, and a method of removing water from foods. A few years before his death, he perfected a method of converting bagasse (crushed sugarcane residue) into paper pulp.