Birds Eye

Birdseye founded the Birdseye Seafood Company in 1919 in New York City, where he began processing fish fillets at a facility near the Fulton Fish Market. In 1925, Birdseye founded the General Seafoods Corporation in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to be closer to a steady supply of fresh fish. His successful technique was to pack fresh fish in five-inch by three-inch by two-inch retail cartons and to place the cartons between two metal plates in contact with calcium chloride brine flowing at a very low temperature. The frozen cartons were packaged in cellophane. Birdseye was one of the first people to use cellophane as a moisture-vapor seal to prevent dehydration of frozen food. By 1928, he was able to apply this technique to meat, poultry, and shellfish in commercial quantities. Birdseye’s success coincided with the development of home refrigeration and freezing units.