Long ago and far away ...

Publishers Note:

Saul Beck purchased Quick Frozen Foods from Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1985. The magazine name was changed to Frozen Food Digest (including Quick Frozen Foods). The following pages contain events and news that were compiled beginning in 1938. Saul Beck Publications

also publishes Quick Frozen Foods Annual Processors Directory & Warehouse Guide.

The first issue was 64 pages, of which 18 were advertising. Among the advertisers in that first issue that are still familiar today were processors Birds Eye, Booth Fisheries, Long Island Duckling; cabinet maker C. V. Hill; warehousemen U.S. Cold Storage, Merchants Refrigerating Company and National Cold Storage; and packaging company DuPont.

Circulation was only 2,000, advertising rates were commensurately low, but despite that the magazine edged into the black with its first issue. This was extraordinary, because the nation was still in the throes of the deepest and most prolonged Depression in its history.

The total volume of frozen foods in 1938 was 268 million pounds. The category with the highest production was frozen fruits, which today has the lowest poundage. In 1938 almost half, 130 million pounds, of everything frozen was fruits. Much of this was bulk, for use in ice cream, for preservers and bakers. Fruits were good items at retail, as well; a fine store might stock peaches, apricots, apples, strawberries, loganberries, gooseberries, cherries, cranberries, red raspberries, blackberries, currants, Persian melons and grapefruit sections. Fruits would remain the primary products through 1947, after which vegetables surged ahead, primarily because of their popularity in the retail cabinets.

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The dollar value of all frozen products in 1938 was just $68 million. The main categories, in order of their importance, were fruits, vegetables, seafoods, poultry and meats. There were no frozen prepared foods and no concentrated juices, though a very limited amount of whole orange juice was frozen. There probably were about 200 processors, using the loosest definition of the term--but no one knows for sure, because at that time there was no directory of the industry.

A lot of what was frozen was intended for further processing and sale in a non-frozen form. Most retail stores had no frozen food cabinets at all. Those that did have them were usually quality stores catering to the carriage trade. Very few supermarkets had any frozen foods. The large department stores like Macy's Bamberger's and Marshall Fields would only that year begin to sell frozen foods in their gourmet departments and were early promoters of the products.

Usually a store kept only one brand because the cabinet was supplied to him either by a large company like Birds Eye or by his distributor. They paid rental or in certain circumstances were loaned the case. Many stores stocked frozen foods in their ice cream cabinets. Virtually all of these cabinets were closed, and a clerk had to be called if the customer wanted to buy a package. It was this fact that retarded the introduction of frozen foods into the supermarkets, because frozen foods were not suitable for self-service. About 90 percent of frozen food sales were bulk or institutional.

There either were signs above the cabinets listing the frozen products and the prices of each (and frozen foods were relatively high in price for the Depression) or glass thermopane windows, through which the packages might be seen--but even in those cabinets, a clerk or the store owner had to secure the package for the customer. Because of the cost of refrigeration and service, coupled with low volume, retailers placed very high markeups on frozen products and kept them more as a convenience, regarding them as unprofitable, which they probably were. An estimated 5,000 to 6,000 stores carried frozen foods in 1938. The only storage space the consumer had for frozen foods was the ice cube compartment in the refrigerator. The frozen food packages were rectangular and small in size so they could fit into such compartments.

The word "frozen," when applied to food, had been considered a synonym for "spoiled," for any fresh fruits or vegetables that became frozen by cold weather lost texture and flavor and were virtually inedible. For that reason many of the early brands had names like Honor Brand Frosted Foods Corp., or Birds Eye Frosted Foods. There still are vestiges remaining of that terminology such as the Eastern Frosted Foods Association, which still bears the old designation. QUICK FROZEN FOODS magazine was considered quite daring to use frozen foods in its title, but then, it was dealing directly with the trade and not the public.

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It should also be remembered that in 1938 something like 20 per cent of those people 21 to 65 years of age in the labor market were unemployed. A starting salary in most companies of $15 per week was considered fair, and $30 per week was adequate to support a family of four in modest circumstances. Less than two per cent of the high school graduates went on to college, and 40 per cent of American-born children never finished high school. There were no superhighways, radio was the big thing and television sets were not yet available in the stores, though you could build your own if you bought the components. A drawback was that there were no channels to tune in on.

Only certain areas of the United States sold frozen foods at all. Great sections of the country had no cabinets and no distributors, so the products were simply unavailable. That was the situation as the first issue of QUICK FROZEN FOODS appeared, and we have capsulated some of the events--both highlights and fascinating trivia--of the 68 years that our magazine has been the magazine of record, the spokesman, the prophet and the inspirator to the frozen food industry.

1938

August

Super markets: "Some super markets have taken to frozen foods in a big way. This is so in the East, but more especially throughout the Midwest. Most distributors of standard frozen food lines can count anywhere from 2% to 10% of their outlets as super markets. Interesting also is the super market's merchandising attitude towards frosted foods. Some large supers have installed two cases, each with a complete line."--Frozen Foods Forum.

Distribution: "Birds Eye has complete control over its distribution. All advertising is furnished by them--prices are maintained. Price cutting may mean loss of franchise.... Birds Eye ... rents the case for $10 to $12.50 a month on a three-year contract ... but the case remains their property."

England: Birds Eye established Frosted Foods Ltd. in Great Britain to sell its brand frozen foods, as well as franchise it to other nations; but eventually it was purchased by Unilever and is today the major brand in the United Kingdom, and in tonnage and dollar sales it has at times ranked first in the world.

Warehouse holdings: The first frozen food warehouse holding report in history was published by the U.S Department of Agriculture this month, and as of July 1, 1938, showed 25 million pounds of fruits and 31 million pounds of vegetables in low-temperature storage. Biggest item is strawberries with almost 11 million pounds, second-biggest is green peas with 10.7 million pounds.

September

Airline feeding: The cover of the issue showed a passenger on United Air Lines eating frozen raspberries as part of her meal.

Shrimp freezing. Birds Eye announced that it would be opening a plant for the freezing of shrimp in Jacksonville, Fla.

October

Retail prices. Frozen spinach (pound), 23 cents; peas, 25 cents; peas and carrots, 23 cents; cauliflower, 19 cents; baby lima beans, 25 cents; broccoli, 23 cents; corn, 23 cents; two ears corn-on-the-cob, 16 cents.

Clarence Birdseye. Reported manufacturing his newest invention, the Birdseye Reflector lamp, silvered on the inside to control the light without external reflection of any kind.

December

Frozen turkey rolls were suggested by QUICK FROZEN FOODS to increase sales and profitability, and a step-by-step photo sequence of how to prepare them for freezing was presented.

1939

January

England: S. W. Smedley, British frozen food processor, ran first full-page frozen food ad in Great Britain in the London Daily Standard, for Thursday, December 29, 1938, promoting frozen vegetables and berries for New Year's Day celebrations.

February

Chipsteaks. The inventor and first producer of chipsteaks, thinly sliced beef with all the gristle and fat removed, was Earl F. Shores of the Chipsteak Company, Los Angeles, Calif.

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Locker plants. Since few homes have freezers, there are plants in hundreds of small towns and some cities where you can rent a low-temperature drawer and store frozen products. These rental places would usually cut up, wrap and freeze sides of beef as well as poultry for customers, and they are beginning to stock and sell frozen foods in commercial packs, as well as pack some themselves. QUICK FROZEN FOODS is catering to them, running articles every issue on their progress.

March

Frozen food pack. QUICK FROZEN FOODS estimates that of all frozen foods produced in 1938, 60% went to further processors, bakeries, ice cream manufacturers and preservers, 30% to the institutional trade and just 10% to the retail stores.

Frosted Foods Institute of California. This group was formed by California industry for the sole purpose of renting an exhibit at the Golden Gate International Exposition of San Francisco Bay, in which they displayed frozen foods and used the slogans: "Fresh summer foods in winter," "Science's Gift to Good Living," and added, "natural flavors," "firm texture," "full vitamin values," "no waste," "sanitary pack," "easily prepared." It was not an association in a true sense, but would meet annually.

Cryovac. The Dewey & Almy Chemical Co. believes it has come up with shrink-wrap of great advantage for packaging frozen poultry.

Birds Eye. At a Chicago dinner Clarence Francis, president of General Foods, reveals that $40 million has been invested in Birds Eye since 1929 and that 4,250 retail stores across the country carry the brand.

1939 New York World's Fair. Birds Eye is the only frozen food company with an exhibit.

April

Fruits. Morris Roth, head of Frigid Food Products, of Detroit, expands to a Cleveland location to increase production of frozen fruits. (This firm is still a leader in that field.)

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Trucking: 85% of the refrigerated truck lines still using dry ice to transport frozen foods.

May

Packaging. Bags, primarily cellophane, were in use by 81% of FF packers for at least some products, according to a QFF survey. Some reported using cellophane bags as far back as 1930. In most cases the bags were inserted in the carton, giving double protection and good stacking.

Plant construction. The John Dulany & Sons plant in Exmore, Va., is one of the first built from the ground up specifically for freezing products. Most others have converted from other uses. Vegetables and fruits are the products packed.

June

Eastern Frosted Foods Association. A luncheon meeting is held at the Lincoln Hotel in New York City, presided over by John J. Antun of the Merchants Refrigeration Company, for what would become the nation's first true frozen food association. They call themselves The New York Quick Frozen Foods Luncheon Club, eventually The Eastern Frosted Foods Association.

July

Sales per store. Gross sales of all foods in many small stores (and super markets are still in their early growth stage) across the country are considered adequate at $2,000 a week. Frozen foods sales in these stores, where they carry frozen products, are averaging $20 to $40 weekly.

August

QFF circulation. Getting advertising was tough, but at the end of its first year, QUICK FROZEN FOODS had 4,853 paid subscribers. The magazine filled a need.

World War II. Packers, brokers, transporters, warehousemen and equipment manufacturers see the outbreak of hostilities in Europe as a boost to business.

September

The big three brands: Birds Eye, the Stokely-controlled Honor Brand, and Booth, all strong in retail sizes.

Fresh frozen dogfood: Scientifically blended by Nieman's.

Carrier Corp. This manufacturer of refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment is the first exhibitor to renew space at the New York World's Fair. As part of its exhibit it has an igloo with a frozen food cabinet, stocked with retail products on display.

Door-to-door-sales of frozen foods were instigated by BobWhite Frosted Foods, New York, N.Y., which sold products to housewives on a regular route from a refrigerated truck. During the forties and even into the fifties, there were hundreds of such businesses. Macy's and Bamberger's department store would also deliver with dry ice and Jiffy bags.

December

Full-color frozen food advertisement, a first, appeared on the inside back cover of the Saturday Evening Post, paid for by Du Pont Cellophane, then a leader in frozen food packaging.

Frozen lamb. A trial shipment, pro-cut, individually wrapped in cellophane, was shipped from Iceland. Tests were made under direction of QUICK FROZEN FOODS special representative Roy M. Cohen.

Midwestern Frozen Food Association organized by QUICK FROZEN FOODS at the Hotel Auditorium, December 13, 1939, along the lines of the previously-formed New York group. Price of attendance is the cost of the Chicago luncheon, $1.00.

1940

January

Birds Eye drops price control. Under George Mentley, that primary brand announces that it would no longer enforce price controls on its products, and retailers could now charge whatever they wished. That it would also abandon its policy of renting cabinets, and retailers could use their own or purchase them outright. Birds Eye had 4,400 cabinets on rental and would apply rental money already paid by retailer toward the purchase of the cabinet. Simultaneously it was taking a 22-page schedule in Life magazine for 1940, including some in four-color, to promote its products.

First National Frozen Food Meeting sponsored by QUICK FROZEN FOODS magazine in conjunction with the National Canners Association Convention in Chicago, on January 23, 1940, at the Auditorium Hotel. Two hundred attend and 50 have to be turned away for lack of accommodations. Chairman is John J. Antun and among the featured speakers is H. C. Diehl of the U.S. Frozen Food Laboratories in Seattle, Wash. There are exhibits by 27 members of the frozen food industry. L. F. Noonan, a processor who heads the Frosted Food Institute of California, says that it is now a group of packers dedicated to improving business in that state. At the end of 1939, there were 375 stores with frozen food cabinets in the entire state of California!

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February

Good Humor is now using its trucks in the winter, selling 23 different frozen fruits and vegetables door-to-door, beginning January 19, 1940, in the Newark and Elizabeth, N.J., environs. Super markets regard it as good advertising for frozen products, all of which are Good Humor brand.

Quick Frozen Foods now claims 7,000 circulation.

April

Refrigerator with freezer compartment built by Philco promoted by an offer of 21 packages of Birds Eye frozen foods for anyone who buys it. This sparks tie-ins by other processors with refrigerator manufacturers.

Frosted Foods Association of New York. The New York Quick Frozen Foods Luncheon club, which had met 10 times since May 1939, decided to formalize activities, and John Antun was elected president. Dues were set at $10 a year. The group has been averaging 60 a meeting.

California: Frozen food sales, which reached an estimated $350,000 in 1939, is given a shot in the arm when Golden State Dairy, of San Francisco, receives a statewide franchise for the distribution of Birds Eye frozen foods. Birds Eye announces that this would bring the total number of stores selling its products to 7,000, but in spite of this the brand is still unprofitable. It would not renew its exhibit for the second year at the World's Fair on which it had spent $170,000.

May

Statistics. In the absence of any industry body collecting production figures, QUICK FROZEN FOODS begins a comprehensive survey of all packers and estimates seem to indicate a 45% increase in frozen food output in 1939.

Ice cream law blocks frozen. Laws passed many years earlier to keep any other products out of ice cream cabinets on a state-by-state basis effectively slow down the distribution of frozen foods, even though the ice cream companies intended them only to keep butter and other dairy products out of their cabinets. The long-range effect will be good, because it forces distributors to place frozen food cabinets in their customers' stores.

American Medical Association votes to consider placing frozen foods on list of acceptable foods with high nutritive value, predominantly due to the research papers of Clarence Birdseye, J. G. Woodroof, Donald K. Tressler, H. C. Diehl, M. A. Joslyn and C. F. Evers--all the papers published in trade magazines and all regular contributors to QUICK FROZEN FOODS. The first product cleared is Birds Eye peas, given the seal of acceptance by The Council on Foods of The American Medical Association.

June

The Eastern Frosted Foods Association makes an arrangement with Carrier Corp., exhibiting refrigeration at the New York World's Fair, to exhibit retail frozen foods. The only cost to participating members is the salary of an attendee and the product displayed. They also arrange a retail Frozen Food Week promotion.

Iceland. The Federation of Iceland Cooperative Societies, Reykjavik, Iceland, opens an office in New York City, feeling there might be a market for its frozen fish in this country.

July

Snider Packing, Rochester, N.Y., has entered frozen under its own label, made famous by ketchup, with peas, asparagus and spinach.

Booth Fisheries. A net income of $153,502.57 for that firm's fiscal year, $100,000 more than the previous year, is announced by president R. P. Fletcher Jr.

August

Low-temperature cabinets. Sales increasing at 100% annually, with 12,000 cabinets now thought, to be in stores. Retail voluntaries and cooperatives lead the field in rate of cabinet installation, whereas corporate chains hold back.

Self-serve cabinets. Schaefer offers center aisle or wall cabinets, with sliding glass doors of thermopane, so the consumer can select own package. Automatic elevator lifts move a new package to the height of the one removed. A major advance in FF merchandising.

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Thaw-pack orange juice made available by Citrifrost Corp., Pico, Calif., in a quart-size pliofilm bag that could remain five days in the refrigerator after thawing. The juice is whole juice.

Brand names. QUICK FROZEN FOODS begins the world's first directory of frozen brand names in its August 1940 issue.

Flowers. A Mobile, Ala., cold storage warehouse manager, A. A. Richards, of Alabama State Docks, announces that he has successfully frozen peonies and gladiolis. They keep indefinitely, and when thawed out are like fresh-picked.

Cooked foods. The brand name "Magic Meals" registered by California Consumers Corp., Los Angeles, preparatory to marketing cooked frozen products including roast turkey, halibut steak, vegetable soup and a barbecue sauce.

Distributors. Lists of distributors from all over the country who want to buy frozen food from packers published in QUICK FROZEN FOODS. For example, in October 1940: "Mercantile, Inc., Milbank, S.D., are interested in distributing a complete line of quick frozen foods. They have a fleet of refrigerated trucks and cover thirteen counties in South Dakota and nine counties in Minnesota." That distributor is still in the frozen food business, both retail and institutional, and may have gotten its start in frozen from that notice.

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November

Clarence Birdseye, currently with Gravity Froster Corporation, Boston, Mass., in one of a number of feature articles especially written for QUICK FROZEN FOODS, offers chapter and verse on quality control. For example, fresh-caught pollock left on a dock in the summer will be "sunburned" in six hours, and in the winter will begin to slow freeze, but if immediately iced will stay in good condition for five days.

Pel-freez was registered by H. F. Pelphrey & Son, Los Angeles, on July 15, 1940, as a trade name for frozen California domestic rabbits.

A & P registered "Polestar" as a trade name for its private label frozen fish fillets, on July 2, 1940.

December

Home freezers. Initially promoted hard by Deepfreeze Division of Motor Products Corporation to packers and distributors for placement in stores, these units are round with a single cover on top and compressor attached. The company opened a show room in Detroit, with 45 operating units on display, stuffed with frozen foods.

First all-frozen-food store: the Frostar Market, White Plains, N.Y., with 23 Deepfreeze cabinets lining a wall, with signs in back of each telling what products are in them. The reason the store uses home-freezer-type units for display is that it is also the authorized agency for their sale. The food prices are criticized as "unnecessarily low" by other food stores in the area, because vegetables are 15 to 33 cents a package. Average sale is 80 cents, and the store is serving 150 customers a day.

1941

January

Individually Quick Frozen or IQF products, called "loose pack," gaining interest.

February

Baked goods. Quick frozen cakes, pies, biscuits, cookies, batters, yeast rolls all practical, Purdue University experimenters report. Why doesn't someone do it?

First National Frozen Food Convention and Exhibition, sponsored by QUICK FROZEN FOODS magazine, is held at the Auditorium Hotel, Chicago, Ill., Jan. 21-24, 1941. There are 1,500 people in attendance and 21 frozen food exhibits. Among the exhibitors: Honor Brand, Armour, Swift, Booth, Priebe, Snider, BobWhite, Deepfreeze and Cedergreen. There were 200 at the Annual Frozen Food Luncheon. Among the speakers, Dr. J. G. Woodroof, of the Georgia Experiment Station of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said: "The vitamins in frozen products are really higher than those in the fresh products, that is, out-of-season products.... Vitamins in frozen products, particulary A and C, are the highest vitamins that you can get of any obtainable source out-of-season." Hotel rates were $2.50 with bath, $1.50 without.

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April

Quick Frozen Foods and The Locker Plant becomes the name of the magazine; the locker plants are the margin of survival for the publication.

Tin cans are becoming scarce, and it is predicted that frozen foods which could be marketed in paper might benefit as a result.

Frozen ground coffee packed for BobWhite, home delivery frozen food company. Freezing prevents oils in coffee from turning rancid, thereby providing better flavor.

Frick freezer. A "Blizzard Freezer" announced by Frick. This box-like affair has doors for carts of products to be frozen. Inside, air is circulated at 40 to 50 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The freezer has a capacity of 6,000 pounds a day.

July

Refrigerated trucks. An estimated 5,000 trucks capable of transporting frozen foods are in use.

August

Institutional distributors. Twenty-four are recorded by QUICK FROZEN FOODS as adding retail sizes of frozen products, where previously they had not done that type of business.

September

Self-service frozen foods are fitting into super markets through use of transparent, sliding glass-top cabinets. High-Low Food Markets, Chicago, has installed them in 25 stores.

December

R. H. Macy, New York, triples the space for frozen foods in its store.

1942

February

War and frozen foods: "It may well be the literal making of the frozen foods industry. Shortages which may become apparent in domestic distribution of fruits and vegetables can be supplied by quick frozen foods. The industry may make greater strides in the next two years than it has made in the entire time since its inception."--Editorial.

National Association of Frozen Food Packers. Under leadership of E. T. Gibson, Birds Eye head, leading processors of frozen foods assembled January 25, 1942, at the Blackstone Hotel, Chicago, and in four hours formed a national association with Gibson as president; Ralph O. Dulany, John H. Dulany & Son, vice president; John N. Seaman, Bozeman Canning Co., vice president; and A. E. Stevens, Birds Eye, temporary secretary. The meeting was held the day before The Second National Quick Frozen Foods Exposition at the La Salle Hotel, Chicago, Jan. 26-29, 1942, sponsored by QUICK FROZEN FOODS magazine.

The Second National Convention. There were 1,300 visitors and 35 exhibitors. Announcement of the formation of the National Association of Frozen Food Packers was made by Gibson at the Frozen Food Forum Luncheon on Jan. 27 to an attendence of 400: "We recognized the need in Washington for accurate information about the frozen foods industry and the need in behalf of the industry itself of having a spokesman who could speak, not for individual companies, but for the producing side of the industry, particularly, which is what Washington is interested in today."

March

Mechanical refrigeration of trucks. Truckers on the West Coast had been discouraged because dry ice could not hold the products properly. However, increasing use of mechanical refrigeration is bringing truckers into favor again. One trucker claimed transporting 25 million pounds in nine Western states during a single year.

Jewel Tea, Chicago retail food chain, is installing FF cabinets in all of its 150 stores.

Hors d'oeuvres are frozen with 10 different fillings by Dover D'oeuvres, New York, N.Y. They are prepared in rolls which are thawed and sliced.

Home freezers. DeepFreeze Company is employing door-to-door salesmen to sell home freezers, trying everything from supplying food themselves to linking up with the customer's favorite store, but it is tough going.

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April

FF men to government: A. E. Stevens, Birds Eye vice president, goes to Washington, D.C., as Administrator of the Fruit & Vegetable section of the Office of Price Administration. Many other important frozen food people move into permanent and consultantancy government posts.

Dog food. Rolled dog food in pound sizes is being packed by Herbert A. Nieman Co., Thiensville, Wis. Shortage of tin is moving some dog food packers into frozen.

May

Macy's in New York City advertises home freezers manufactured by Schaefer, Inc., at $259, and is willing to extend credit for payment.

July

Price ceilings. Through the efforts of the National Association of Frozen Food Packers, very fair price ceilings for packer, distributor and retailer of frozen foods--with the option to pass price increases along--are promulgated by the government. This ensures profitability in frozen foods for all handling them.

Larry Martin elected secretary of the National Association of Frozen Food Packers. Martin had been in charge of the Quick-Frozen Foods Division of the U.S. Office of Price Administration (OPA). He replaces temporary officer Edgar M. Burns, Oregon packer.

August

Prepared Foods. Chicken a la king, roast turkey, lobster a la Newburg and halibut a la king all marketed by Frost-Cooked Foods, Inc., Boston.

F. G. Lamb & Co., Freewater, Ore., has undertaken to freeze four million pounds of peas for the Campbell Soup Co.

Baked beans in frozen form introduced by Birds Eye.

September

Corn beef hash in frozen form marketed by National Frosted Foods, New York City distributor. The product is frozen in Argentina in one pound blocks.

Ocean Garden brand granted to Marine Products Company, San Diego, Calif., for frozen shrimp. (Trademark was applied for in 1939.)

The Locker Plant, a separate section which literally splits the magazine in two, is started. All editorial and advertising matter related to locker plants is included in this section, which is frequently half the size of the total magazine.

October

100% production increase is requested of the frozen food industry by the government, which states that it will issue priorities for obtaining equipment. The biggest problem is not obtaining equipment, but labor.

The Pennsylvania Railroad says frozen foods are a godsend for their dining cars, because of indeterminate number of people who may eat dinner.

Mixed vegetables, five vegetables in one package, are going over strong for Birds Eye.

Circulation of QFF now guaranteed at 8,000, including 416 copies to packers, 1,719 to wholesale distributors of quick frozen foods, 1,241 to ice cream companies, dairies & creameries and 4,428 to refrigerated locker plants.

November

Pack figures issued by the National Association of Frozen Food Packers for 1941: 107 million pounds of frozen fruits and 97 million pounds of frozen vegetables.

December

Dehydration. Government urging frozen food packers to go into dehydrated foods, wanting 400 million pounds in 1943, and making it very easy for them to get equipment. Some are responding.

National Frozen Food Packers Association sponsors session at Food Processors Conference, at the Palmer House. Chicago, Dec. 16, 1942, in which WPB (War Production Board) officials told the food industry what would be expected of them. There were 300 present, and they learned that four million pounds of metal had been allocated for the frozen food industry, primarily for equipment. No tin at all for cans. No priorities will be needed for paper packaging. Small packers can submit proposals for expansion. Draft deferments were available for essential agricultural workers, and there could be shifting of workers from nonessential crops, special training of workers and student and volunteer work. The industry suggested Mexican labor, woman and child labor and Army recruit labor. A packer could borrow up to 25% against amount to be supplied Army.

War Production Board tells the FF industry it will need 7 million additional pounds of frozen vegetables and fruits during 1943 to feed the Armed Forces. The 21 largest packers are producing 97% of all frozen fruits and vegetables. That includes everyone who packed more than 1.3 million pounds.

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1943

February

Government purchases. Virtually all the government demands of the frozen foods fruit and vegetable packers for 71 million pounds of product is offered. "This is indeed a momentous achievement for so young an industry," wrote QFF, "It bespeaks efficiency, organization, and willingness to aid in the war effort."

Rationing. The government puts many frozen foods under point rationing; however, the number of points needed to buy a package of frozen foods was far less than that needed for identical canned foods. For example, equivalant weight of peas were 10 points for frozen and 16 for canned, so the consumer could buy more food by switching to frozen. Every newspaper in America, and every retail food store handling frozen, printed or posted signs indicating the points needed. It was an incredible advertisement for frozen foods and at a time when they had a rationing advantage.

March

Institutional sales halt. The Eastern Frosted Foods Association sends a committee of institutional distributors to Washington, D.C., on March 16 to appeal for relief, because lack of points and specific regulation prevent buying existing stocks in warehouses. The meeting is held with James Stout of the OPA. Some distributors report no sales in containers under 10 pounds in three weeks.

Ice cream. Government order limiting ice cream industry to only 65% of milk fat and milk solids offered opportunity to up the fruit content and increase the total supply by as much as 10%. This fruit could be supplied in frozen form since tin was unavailable.

Preserves. Any extra cost involved in buying frozen fruits for use in jams and jellies can be passed on to the customer, the government rules.

Price supports. The government agrees to buy peas, corn, lima beans, snap beans and some fruits from farmers at 1943 support prices and to resell them to freezers at 1942 lower prices, providing a subsidy and limiting inflationary impact.

Points reduced. Because frozen food inventories are piling up in the warehouses, the government reduces requirements four points a pound.

Institutional sales dropped from 42% to 65% as a rationing point system was awaited.

Army transport. The 71 million pounds of frozen vegetables purchased by the Army will be moved in 2,500 carloads from May through December 1943.

Dehydration section. The move to dehydration, encouraged by the government, is so precipitous that QFF puts in a special section to run monthly.

Prepared foods. Many prepared foods have no ration points put on them at all, so many small companies begin to freeze them. Among them, Red-E-Foods, Inc., Rochester, N.Y., has fish and clam chowder, chicken chili among other items.

May

Point pick-up. Sales of retail frozen foods increased 48%, and institutional, 27%, the two weeks following drop in points required to buy them. Up to then, 4.6% of consumers' points were spent for retail frozen. In the last two weeks, 8% of available points spent for frozen.

General Foods buys Snider, and a new Snider division is formed. Since General Foods owns Birds Eye, the frozen part of Snider's business is merged into that label.

June

"Bible of the Industry." That phrase, which has today become standard regarding QUICK FROZEN FOODS, first used.

Distributor relief. A ruling anticipated for July will allow institutional distributors a 29% markup on frozen foods. This will permit them to resume normal business.

July

Quick Frozen Foods Confidential Newsletter, a weekly mimeographed paper, is established to give readers instant information on what is happening in Washington, D.C., regarding wartime legislation on frozen foods.

November

Point increase. An across-the-board increase on frozen vegetables, doubling and tripling amount of points needed, causes consternation in view of a pack predicted at 100% greater. Eastern Frosted Food Association of N.Y. and Quick Frozen Foods Association of Chicago file protests to Washington. OPA also discourages packing institutional sizes in particular.

December

Frozen tomatoes, first blanched and then frozen whole in 30-pound containers are available from the Loughead Packing Company, Fresno, Calif.

Refrigeration Research Foundation formed as an adjunct of the National Association of Refrigerated Warehouses, November 18, 1943, in Chicago. H. C. Diehl, chief of commodity Processing Division of Western Regional Research Laboratory, Albany, Calif., has requested release from the government to act as its director.

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1944

January

Frozen food store. Deepfreeze Motor Products, manufacturer of home freezers, has opened an all-frozen food store in Hubbard Woods, near Chicago, delivering frozen foods to the homes of freezer owners.

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Birds Eye-Snider Division formed within the General Foods organization combining processing and distribution operations under one head.

Ed White resigns as head of Honor Brand and opens brokerage in San Francisco.

February

Production. Out of anticipated 240 million pounds of frozen vegetables for the crop year ended June 30, 1944, the Army will take 74 million pounds.

Ralph Dulany elected president of the National Association of Frozen Food Packers.

Post-War frozen food cabinets. Two meetings were held by QUICK FROZEN FOODS in cooperation with the Eastern Frosted Foods Association and the Chicago Association on January 20th and February 15th respectively on the problem of expansion of retail cabinets after the War. The two meetings were attended by over 500.

William O. Vilter, president of the Vilter Manufacturing Co. Milwaukee, major manufacturer of ammonia compressors for freezing plants, dies at age 62.

Clarence Birdseye sees bright future (15 years off) for dehydrated foods, agrees to join technical advisory board of QUICK FROZEN FOODS.

April

Self-service cabinets. In survey by QUICK FROZEN FOODS of super markets, it is found that 95% prefer self-service frozen food cabinets.

Kold Kist Frozen Foods and Kermin Products are two of half-dozen new frozen prepared food companies in Los Angeles.

June

Whole orange juice frozen in glass under Cold Gold brand by Pure Fruit Juices of Los Angeles. Agitation of the juice while freezing leaves air space in center of container and the additional expansion of juice on freezing is inward, preventing jar from breaking under pressure.

375 foods frozen successfully are listed by QUICK FROZEN FOODS,

Governor Dewey of New York, Republican candidate for President of the United States, turns out to be a frozen food user and endorses the industry as one with a future.

Apple sauce. A flood of companies, including the largest, Birds Eye, rush into freezing it.

Orange juice concentrate. Freezing concentrated juice rather than whole juice is the only practical answer to creating a new industry, states Arthur L. Stahl of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Gainesville, Fla. Experiments with freeze concentration have produced distinctly superior results, and several other methods are available.

October

Distributors beg for product. Some estimated 500 wholesale distributors who want to handle frozen foods are on the waiting list of leading packers to get priority when more product is available.

British Columbia Packers Ltd., Vancouver, announces plans to go into freezing of fish, specifically fillets, as soon as the War is over.

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November

Frozen food stores. First all-frozen food store in White Plains, N.Y., so successful that Frostar is opening up two new ones in the area. Idea has already begun to spread to other parts of the country, including a new one in Washington, D.C., by Deepfreeze.

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December

Automatic dispensing cabinet for frozen foods--solid wall unit, with each item in a different compartment just as foods are sold in the Automat--is now being sold to stores by Refrigeration Corporation of America, New York.

Soy bean products are experimentally being frozen as possible extenders or substitutes for meat products.

Can the ice man sell FF? J. Clark Bennett in a talk before convention of the National Association of Ice Industries asked the ice men to consider possibility of door-to-door sales to people with home freezers.

Western Frozen Food Association organized November 8, 1944, at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, with Ted Aronson of Santa Clara Frosted Foods as its first president.

L. Bamberger & Co., Newark, N.J., largest department store in the state, will process, freeze and sell a line of precooked frozen foods.

Marathon Corp. new name of Menasha Products Co., Menasha, Wis., major supplier of frozen food packaging.

1945

January

Cancelled conventions. The National Association of Frozen Food Packers and the National Canners Association have cancelled their planned annual meets due to War conditions. QUICK FROZEN FOODS has cancelled its annual Frozen Food Forum Luncheon.

Brand names. There are 250 different brand names in the frozen food industry.

Vertical freezer. Prominent refrigeration engineer Van Rensselaer H. Greene invents a freezer with trays fed into the bottom and moved upward, freezing in the process of rising, and discharged at the top. The unit can hold 50 trays and freeze up to 2,000 pounds an hour including IQF. It works continuously. For his achievement Green is invited to join the QUICK FROZEN FOODS' technical staff and accepts.

February

Seabrook Farms is a new label, launched by The Deerfield Packing Co., Bridgeton, N.J., for its retail products. Deerfield is the largest frozen vegetable packer in America.

March

Frigid-Dough, freezer of raw dough products, has opened a retail store exclusively for the sale of frozen fruit pies, chicken pies, cookies, cloverleaf rolls, muffins. Products are baked off by the housewife.

The California Frozen Food Institute formed by Frank Wright Foundation in San Francisco. Aim is to promote frozen products, educate production and marketing men and coordinate efforts of California processors and allied industries.

April

Complete frozen dinner developed by W. L. Maxson Corp., New York. Each meal consists of meat, vegetables and potatoes in a three-compartmented round tray. All components processed to heat simultaneously and pyrex or bake-ware tray are disposable. Entire output taken by the Army, which utilizes a Whirlwind oven that heats six meals simultaneously in airplanes. Typical menus include: steak, french fried potatoes and carrots; meat loaf, candied sweet potatoes and spinach, etc.

June

Froz-n Coff-e introduced by Cusak Coffee Company, Los Angeles, contains enough concentrate for three to five cups in a cup-shaped container, six for 30 cents.

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The Story of the Frozen Foods Industry ... and the Magazine That Grew Up With It published as a brochure by QUICK FROZEN FOODS.

Ben E. Keith Company, distributor from Fort Worth, Tex., takes quarter page ad in QUICK FROZEN FOODS reading: "Exceptional Opportunity for distribution of Quality Institutional Lines of Frozen Foods. Correspondence solicited from quality packers. Largest distributors of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables in the Southwest."

July

First 1945 Pocket Directory of Frozen Food Packers published by QUICK FROZEN FOODS, containing 256 pages and priced at $2.00.

Frozen pie crust developed by Mrs. Mason's Original Frosted Pie Crust, New York City. It is sold in a roll like a salami and must be thawed, rolled, placed in a pie tin and baked. It retails for 34 cents and there is also a one-pound institutional package.

September

Frozen meat pies, frozen dinners, frozen fruit pies offered by the Cease Commissary Service, Dunkirk, N. Y.

Dehydration "boom" collapses and QFF drops section.

October

Frozen Food Store special section inaugurated.

"Yellow" Section of News, Markets, Prices and People inaugurated.

QFF now has 7,800 readers, of whom 5,200 are paid subscribers.

Smedley head to visit U. S. from England to buy freezing equipment.

All War controls off freezing equipment as of October 1, 1945. Scramble for available material.

November

An industry convention. QUICK FROZEN FOODS editorializes that the frozen food people should have a separate convention, not connected with the canners, and that it be sponsored by the National Association of Frozen Food Packers.

Snowcrop Marketers, Inc., formed in Los Angeles, headed by J. I. Moone, former division manager of Birds Eye-Snider. Will market complete retail line of frozen fruits and vegetables.

Long Island Duck Packing Corp. to building a freezing plant with a 75 million pound a year capacity.

December

Clarence Birdseye tries to save the disappearing dehydration industry with a new process producing flavors superior to anything yet seen, but after testing the products QFF concluded: "They represent the greatest improvement yet made on preservation by dehydration ... but to frozen foods, no threat."

No improvement in the quality of frozen foods for the past five years, QFF asserts, and predicts that if new research is not forthcoming the industry will have a disaster.

J. G. Woodroof, chief food technologist of the Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station, joins QFF staff as Technical Editor.

Rich Products Corp., Buffalo, N.Y., has developed a nondairy product called "Whip Topping" as an alternative for war-short whipped cream. The product has a soy base and its first promotion is a quarter-page advertisement in QFF seeking distributors. The product is packed in a tapered milk-type container.

Advertising Club. QFF, on December 20, 1945, assembled hundreds of leading advertising agency men at the Advertising Club of New York to eat an all-frozen-food luncheon and listen to Clarence Birdseye speak.

Orange juice concentrate. Freezing was begun by Florida Frozen Fruits, Inc., in March 1945. Among executives is Charles M. Henderson.

1946

February

First postwar convention of frozen food packers Feb. 2-7, 1946, attended by 900.

National Wholesale Frozen Food Distributors, Inc., newly-formed organization today known as the National Frozen Food Association, represented by its second vice-president, William M. Walsh at the packers' convention. He reported his association had 75 members and asked for the formation of a committee linking the two associations.

French fried potatoes. Maxson enters the field with the first retail package of french fries.

Pasco Packing Company to build largest orange concentrate freezing plant in Florida, expected to be in full operation in Dade City sometime in 1947.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Link between associations. Burton Prince, president of the new distributors' association, appoints William Walsh of Morrison & McCluan, Pittsburgh, as chairman of the advisory committee to confer with the packers' association on cooperative action.

Donald K. Tressler, Ph.D., outstanding food technologist who helped perfect the blanching process for frozen foods, opens his own food laboratory in Westport, Conn.

May

Jeno's Frozen Salad Vegetables with bean sprouts, 12-ounce package, out of Duluth, Minn., first frozen venture of Jeno Paulucci.

Southeastern Frozen Foods Association organized April 19, 1945 in Macon, Ga., with H. C. Bateman of Bateman Frozen Foods as its president.

Bumble Bee brand quick frozen fish fillets in five-pound institutional pack available from Columbia River Packers Association.

June

The Frozen Food Critic by Laura Track begins this month. It would run until her death in 1972. She bought retail products at random and prepared them according to instructions and, as a trained home economist, told things the way she saw them. For the first time in history frozen french fries were tested. She said the taste was good but that heating instructions were too short, a crisper product would result in a slightly better flavor with longer heating.

Birdseye boil-in-bag. Clarence Birdseye says he has tested scores of prodducts since 1932, and freezing them in a plastic pouch produced a superior product and made it possible to heat them in boiling water.

Aluminum. Dr. T. M. Hill of the Foil Division of the Aluminum Company of America suggests that there might be a wider future for aluminum in frozen foods packaging. At present there are foil laminated boxes and foil wrappers but no foil containers.

C. A. Swanson & Sons, Omaha, has gone into frozen chicken a la king, chicken fricassee, chicken salad and chicken chow mein in addition to its line of raw frozen poultry products.

Southern fried chicken is being produced by K. C. Food Products, Newark, N.J., along with a wide line of other cooked products including french fries to go with the chicken.

Hot hors d'oeuvres in frozen form marketed by Kathleen Watson Kelley, New York, as well as cold hors d'oeuvres.

Bridgeford Company, San Diego, Calif., is producing corned beef hash as well as a line of frozen fruits and vegetables.

Prepared foods. So many packers are entering the frozen prepared foods business that QUICK FROZEN FOODS has a special section titled "Cooked and Prepared Foods," mentioning as many as 20 new companies per issue.

J. R. Simplot plans to freeze potatoes in Nampa, Idaho.

Foil package made from thin aluminum sheet has been developed by Bjorksten Laboratories, Chicago. It can pack almost any solid or liquid food product with maximum protection, offering rigidity, and can be used to reheat product. Does not transmit any odor to product.

August

Frozen retail dinners, produced by Maxson, to be sold to the public for the first time starting September 20, 1946, at L. Bamberger & Co., New Jersey's largest department store, in Newark, N. J. Ten different meals will be offered, each with a main course and two vegetables in a three-compartmented platter. They will be called "Strato-Meals."

Minute Maid introduced institutional sizes of frozen orange concentrate May 1, 1946.

Snow Crop introduces first retail package of frozen orange concentrate in a 6-ounce tin in New York and Philadelphia in July 1946.

September

Mobile frozen food stores. The first of what would become hundreds of stores on wheels, usually converted buses, is inaugurated by Capt. Bud Mayer whose "Frostmobile" in Arlington, Va., carried frozen foods door-to-door. The housewife could walk into the bus and select frozen foods out of the cabinets. A gasoline-powered compressor maintains temperature in the cabinets. It cost him $9,000-10,000 to start the business.

Price controls removed from all frozen products but meats, as of August 31, 1946. Packers, distributors, retailers can charge anything they can get.

Frozen Food Council of California was formed to make arrangements for a large-scale frozen food show to be held the week of October 7th in the State Exposition Building in Los Angeles. The mayor declared it "Frozen Food Week."

Frozen shrimp cocktails introduced by McKay-Davis Co., Dade City, Fla. Shipments being sent to New York City by air.

October

Maxson's dinners score initial success at Bamberger's. Prices range from 98 cents for beef goulash with simmered gravy, garden peas, butter sauce and a potato patty to $1.98 for chicken paprika with French beans and a potato patty. The tray is heat-resistant paper fiber with a foil-lined cover capable of heating at 400 degrees F. The weights are 11-12 ounces.

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Processors. QUICK FROZEN FOODS showed there were now 737 frozen food companies in its second directory of frozen food processors, up from 516 in 1945. Biggest percentage jump was in cooked and prepared foods, from 34 to 100, though great numbers were added in meat and seafoods.

Southland Products Co., already operating four freezing plants in New York, Florida, Illinois and Tennessee, planning a million-dollar expansion to keep up with demand.

November

Movement. Frozen food prices are up 50-100% and QFF again cautions, "Prices on many items are out of line, industrywise and competitively." Slowing down of sales already noted.

Maxson frozen potato plant established in Washburn, Me.

Frigidinner brand name of line of frozen dinners out of Philadelphia, first to use foil tray and foil cover.

December

Slowdown. Inventories of frozen foods begin to pile up in warehouses, almost a billion pounds. Not only are prices too high but quality is poor. Even lifting of price controls on meat fails to help; in fact it is seriously hurting. "Everyone knows the seller's market in frozen foods is over," QFF writes. "Emphasis must be on merchandising, selling and advertising, rather than on production, although quality production is a must which will make smart merchandising successful."

Boilable pouches. The Singer Food Process Corporation, operating out of the kitchen of Hotel Gramatan, in Bronxville, N.Y., is producing from 5,000 to 8,000 packages a day of oyster stew, lobster bisque, onion soup, minestrone, seafood Newburg, curried shrimp and similar products packed in moisture-proof bags to be reheated in the bag in boiling water.

Sandwiches. Open-faced sandwiches topped with cheddar cheese and bacon to be heated in an oven like a pizza are marketed by Edith T. Latimer Co., New York.

1947

January

Southland Frozen Foods is the new name of Southland Products Co., with Philip Rizzuto and Theodore Delson, former partners, principal stockholders under new incorporation.

J. D. Jewell, of Gainesville, Ga., who began freezing chicken late in 1945, is now adding the freezing of cut up chicken to the regular line of eviscerated frozen chickens.

February

Bankers and frozen foods. Because of slump in frozen foods, the danger of loans being withdrawn and refused is imminent. QUICK FROZEN FOODS arranges a meeting between 30 of the leading bankers and the top frozen food packers and association heads on January 28, 1947, at the Wall Street Club in New York. Banker confidence was renewed and the frozen food industry was saved what might have been a stunning setback to postwar expansion plans.

School Lunch Program. Pasco's new Florida plant has received a contract from the Federal government for $450,000 of frozen concentrated juice to be distributed as part of the School Lunch Program.

March

Open frozen food cabinets, announced as forthcoming by Hussman as early as September 1945, are now in stores and beginning to work out. No sliding glass thermopane top--the customer reaches in and selects product. Price is $1,300 and waiting time could be a year or more for delivery.

Convention issue. A 290-page number of QFF is prepared for the joint convention of the packers and distributors associations held in San Francisco, Mar. 18-20, 1947. There is a registration of 7,000 and there are 102 frozen food exhibitors. C. Courtney Seabrook of Seabrook Farms is elected president of the packer's group. Board votes to permit every type of freezer to join, not just those processing fruits and vegetables, with associate membership for suppliers. The affair is recognized as the official national convention by the entire industry.

IQF freezer developed by Clarence Birdseye--called "Gravity Froster," because products enter on moving belt through blast tunnel, passing downward through a series of belts and emerge from the bottom--is now being manufactured by Cleaver-Brooks Company, Milwaukee. The equipment is completely automatic, easy to defrost and clean. Initial models produce 1,000-1,200 pounds per hour.

Consumer survey, conducted by DuPont, found that only 29.3% of frozen food buyers planned their purchases, underscoring the importance of impulse in sales.

Tyler accepting orders for open cabinets.

April

Prices plummet. Widespread dumping of all types of frozen foods at any price in order to clear inventories as industry panics.

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Frozen lemonade. Techniques of preparing it perfected by scientific team headed by W. V. Cruess of the University of California, who asserts it is a "natural" for the frozen food industry.

Mrs. Paul's Kitchens, a small Philadelphia company which recently entered the business with devilled crabs and fried oysters, is taking a crack at producing french fried potatoes.

June

Microwave ovens. Speed cooking through Raytheon electronic ovens offers great potential in conjunction with frozen foods.

July

Temple Frosted Foods, Brooklyn, is freezing Chinese foods, including egg rolls, fried rice and chow mein.

Victor F. Weaver, Inc., New Holland Pa., now marketing frozen chicken patties, turkey patties, chicken cutlets, turkey cutlets, fried chicken, jellied chicken, boned chicken and boned turkey, all in frozen form.

August

Awrey Bakeries, Detroit, is freezing its own line of baked goods, including a dozen different types of rolls, bran muffins, cookies and fruit pies.

W. L. Maxson dies. The founder of the company bearing his name, which introduced retail frozen dinners, french fries and other products, died July 15, 1947.

Alford Refrigerated Warehouses announces it will spend $5,250,000 on the largest refrigerated warehouse in the world. It will have 9.5 million cubic feet, as well as 8 million cubic feet of dry space, plus offices. The project covers a 60-acre site in Dallas.

October

Snow Flake Canning Co., owned by H. C. Baxter & Bro., went into the production of frozen french fried potatoes early this year at Corinna, Me. All production is supplied to Birds Eye-Snider. In May 1946 they had operated a pilot plant.

November

Minute Maid begins distribution of its retail 6-ounce can of frozen orange concentrate in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

December

R. H. Macy, New York, expanded its food department with four C. V. Hill self-service frozen food cabinets. They will be selling the Fruitidor as well as the Lily White label of companion store, Bamberger's.

Fish and Chips in a one-pound package for 59 cents is introduced by Chicago Frozen Foods.

Gretchen Grant Kitchens, Jersey City, N.J., which entered freezing a few months ago with pie crust, is also freezing liver canapes, cheese bagels and cocktail cookies. Proprietor is Louis Midler.

Milady Food Products, Brooklyn, N. Y., under ownership of Hy Epstein and Mac Levine, is producing a line of frozen blintzes in a variety of flavors selling for 45 cents.

Florida Citrus Canners Cooperative, Lake Wales, Fla., plans to be in frozen concentrated orange juice in January.

1948

January

Two Frez-O-Mats, self-service freezer cabinets containing standard-size FF packages in drawers showing the label in the front, were installed in the side walls in an American Store in Philadelphia; they are said to have increased FF sales by 25 to 33% by saving the customer from having to dig into the usual coffin freezers to hunt out her preferred items.

Advertising its own brand of frozen vegetables in the newspapers, Snowbird Frosted Foods, a Philadelphia distributor, sent penny post cards to alert its retailers to tie in their displays with the specials advertised.

February

The Frozen Food Cook Book, the first cook book devoted entirely to home preparation of FF, prepared by Frozen Food Products, Inc., New York, N.Y., with the aid of the Frozen Food Foundation, Syracuse, N.Y., is announced for publication by Simon & Schuster in April.

Microwave heating was first associated with frozen foods in an article about a research project by food technologists at the State College of Washington, concerned with the use of high frequency radio power, supplied by radar equipment developed during the War, in the food industry. Initial work was with scalding of fruits and vegetables prior to freezing, rather than reheating FF.

March

QUICK FROZEN FOODS incorporated Food Freezing magazine, effective this issue.

An estimated five to seven million cans of frozen citrus concentrates had been packed since first appearing in the 1946-47 season. Standardized for retail in six-ounce cans, FCOJ prices ranged from 27 cents to 32 cents a can, averaging 29 cents.

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Frozen Foods Week, initiated locally the year before by the Quick Frozen Foods Association of Chicago and spearheaded by them this year, scheduled for national celebration March 14-20.

United Airlines testing the use of frozen foods, precooked and stored in freezers aboard planes, for service on their Stratocruisers.

Foil pouches with individual entree portions hermetically sealed in, called Wife-Savers, are demonstrated by Maxson Food Systems, New York, N.Y., at Bloomingdale's, New York department store.

April, 1948

Alford Refrigerated Warehouses is constructing a new refrigerated warehouse in Dallas, Tex., with about 7.5 million cubic feet of storage space, with special attention to be given to palletized operation, and cold storage doors to be mechanically operated to speed up movement of traffic.

May

The estimated number of frozen food packers is now 909, compared to 737 listed in the QFF Directory of Processors a year earlier.

June

Dry milk, frozen, concentrated and reconstituted twice, being tested by government agencies. The frozen milk is said to reconstitute very well and to offer a real saving in bulk, but price "still somewhat out of line."

A frozen dinner package, designed by Sylvania Div., American Viscose Corp., New York, N.Y., holds an entire meal for four. The items--such as corned beef hash, green peas and peaches--are separately packed in the carton.

July

Frozen food distributors surveyed; 87% see profits in home cabinet sales through cooperation with appliance dealers. Food and cabinet combination sales show good results.

QFF offers to check brand names against a file of 1,500 to help companies avoid duplication.

Certified Grocers of California, a cooperative buying group for over 1,300 super markets in southern California, is buying direct from packers, and also completing a 15,000-square-foot freezer warehouse.

September

Safeway Stoes, the only major super market chain not generally handling frozen foods, announces its intention to experiment in the stocking and selling of certain frozen foods, including ice cream.

October

Packers and distributors associations agree to hold a united industry convention the next March, following a decision made at a special meeting of the National Wholesale Frozen Food Distributors Association to accept the proposal to merge conventions made by the National Association of Frozen Food Packers.

Minute Maid concentrated, frozen orange juice is to be promoted on a new series of daytime radio programs to be launched in the fall by Bing Crosby, who was recently elected director of Vacuum Foods Corp., New York City, processors of the orange juice.

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November

Leo Young, formerly with International Fisheries Corp., started his own company, Leo Young and Co., as of Oct. 27, 1948.

December

Grand Union, New York chain operating over 300 stores, 118 in the metropolitan area, and which had been handling frozen foods since 1935, showed a 59% increase in the FF sales in the first nine months of 1948 over the same period in 1947.

Deerfield Packing Corp., Bridgeton, N.J., changed its name to Seabrook Farms Co., for closer identification with its brand.

1949

January

Orange juice replaces strawberries in FF best-seller spot for first time in some cities.

Truck transportation of FF showed continued increases as proposed rail rates threatened to prce railroads out of the market, according to a QFF survey.

QFF acquired Frozen Food Industry & Locker Plant Journal from Food Publications, Inc., New York, N.Y., and incorporated it with QFF effective with this issue.

February

Canners showed apprehension at inroads of frozen foods at their recent convention, and made substantial promotional plans for 1949. Meanwhile, fewer freezers were in attendance at the canners' convention.

March

A proposed law in Massachusetts that each package of FF would have to bear the exact date the article was processed meets stiff opposition from FF interests in the state and from the National Wholesale Frozen Food Distributors Association.

April

Distributors show increasing disturbance at direct selling to super market chains by some packers.

The merger of Foremost Dairies, Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., with Maxson Food Systems, Inc. under the name of Foremost Dairies, was announced.

May

Institutional distributors indicated an expanding market for frozen foods in this field, with sales for 1949 running well ahead of the same period a year earlier.

Welch Grape Juice Company, Westfield, N.Y., enters field with grape juice concentrate, currently marketed in the New York and New Jersey areas.

Marketing tests for FF by Safeway Stores, Inc., according to Lingan A. Warren, president, "appear to justify the installation of equipment in a substantial number of stores."

June

The annual packaging review shows "a 100 % improvement in the design and color of all new packages. Gone, or fast disappearing, are the igloos, the Eskimos, the huskies and the ice-capped mountains, and in their place has come the lifelike colored vignette that shows the foods themselves."

Lamb chops, lima beans and carrots are packed together by Hygrade Food Products Corp., New York, N.Y., as a complete dinner in a cellophane over-wrap open carton.

July

A new container for Rich Products Corp., Buffalo, N.Y., Whip Topping dispenses the topping ready to use, no beating or whipping being required. The new container, sealed under pressure, spouted a continuous stream of the whipped vegetable-base topping as long as the nozzle was pressed. Only about an hour at room temperature was required for the frozen product to defrost for use.

FF package dating bill defeated in the Massachusetts legislature.

August

The Southern Frozen Food Distributors Association was organized following a two-day meeting in Atlanta, Ga. The group at that time numbered 22 FF distributors and 7 associate members.

September

Frozen coffee concentrate test marketed in six Eastern city areas by Snow Crop Marketers, Inc., New York, N.Y.

November

Minute Maid Corp. is the new name for Vacuum Foods Corp., New York, N.Y.

Carl A. Swanson, president, C. A. Swanson & Sons, Omaha, Neb., frozen poultry processing company, died at the age of 70 while he was in Chicago attending the annual meeting of the National Poultry, Butter and Egg Association.

December

Snow Crop Marketers, Inc., New York, N.Y., announced that it would discontinue direct selling and other operations bypassing distributors, in an address to a meeting of the National Wholesale Frozen Food Distributors Association.

Cranberry juice concentrate added to the Ocean Spray line, according to the National Cranberry Association, Hanson, Mass.

1950

January

Florida juice concentrates anticipated to reach a pack of over 25 million gallons in 1950, according to QFF survey, roughly 2 1/2 times 1949 production.

February

Fantail breaded shrimp, a new frozen product introduced less than a year earlier by Trade Winds Company and its national sales agents, E. L. Cook Co., Atlanta, Ga., is now distributed in 36 states.

March

Rising grove prices of Florida oranges led to fears that FCOJ prices might rise from the 31 cents-33 cents range to 35 cents a 6-ounce can; the National Wholesale Frozen Food Distributors Association took a page ad in Florida papers calling on citrus growers not to injure the concentrate market by pricing juices out of the market.

April

Lemonade concentrate, making one quart from a 5 1/2-ounce can, introduced by Snow Crop Marketers, Inc.

A breading combination for use by manufacturers of frozen seafoods and meats is offered by Modern Maid Food Products, Brooklyn, N.Y. It consists of the company's Redi Breader and its newest product, All-Purpose Batter Dip.

May

Minute Maid lemonade concentrate made at Sunkist plant in Ontario, Calif.

June

Supporting the A&P in its fight against monopoly charges, the National Association of Frozen Food Packers issue a resolution calling any dissolution of the food chain's operations a threat to the economy and welfare of the country.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

July

Heating of frozen foods by microwaves in Raytheon Radarange Electronic Oven discussed in an article.

August

Pan American World Airways is doing its own freezing of foods served on flights. Special ovens for preparing the food in transit are being installed on the planes.

A survey of more than 1,000 hospitals made by Modern Hospital magazine showed that 60% had frozen food storage at the beginning of 1950, compared to 35% in 1948.

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September

E. W. Williams, publisher of QFF, starts his first reporting tour of Europe.

FF cabinet deals are made by 70% of distributors responding to QFF survey; most involve direct sale of cabinets to retailers. A frequent objection is that the distributor did not get exclusive FF rights in filling the cabinet.

New Kate Smith Show scheduled to be sponsored by Minute Maid Corporation on NBC TV.

October

The Eastern Oregon Canning Co., Weston, Ore., recently purchased by F. G. Lamb Co., Freewater, Ore., will be operated under the name Lamb-Weston, Inc., as a subsidiary of the F. G. Lamb Co.

A ready-baked frozen waffle introduced by the Waffle Corporation of America, Philadelphia, Pa., under the brand name Downyflake Frozen One-Minute Waffle.

California Fruit Growers Exchange purchases the "Sunkist" trademark from the California Packing Corporation for $1.25 million. The exchange had been using the brand on its fresh citrus fruit since 1908, but the previous owner also used the brand name on canned and dried fruits.

November

FF cabinet production dwindling, due to materials shortages since the outbreak of the Korean War, and is threatened by cutback orders on strategic materials.

1951

January

Former Georgia Governor Ellis Arnall, senior partner of Arnall, Golden and Gregory, Atlanta, Ga., is appointed with his firm as chief legal counsel for the National Wholesale Frozen Food Distributors Association.

February

Frozen specialty packers in the New York City area chose a name for their recently formed organization: the Prepared Frozen Foods Processors Association.

General Foods Corporation, Birds Eye Foods processor, takes an option on a White Plains, N.Y., site for the construction of a general office building. (Its offices were located in New York City.)

The Green Giant Company, Le Sueur, Minn., known for its canned vegetable products, is market testing its frozen peas under the Green Giant label in Fort Wayne, Ind., and Minneapolis, Minn.

March

Morton Packing Company, Louisville, Ky., prepared food processor, elected George E. Egger president, following the retirement of L. Owsley Haskins. Egger was a director of Minute Maid Corp., New York, N.Y., and Merchants Ice & Cold Storage, among other firms.

April

Frozen precooked dinner, called FrigiDinners, packed by FrigiDinners, Inc., Philadelphia, Pa., consisting of meat and vegetables wrapped in foil and packed in an aluminum platter, are sold with other self-service items in a chain of automatic launderettes operated by Telecoin Corporation, New York, N.Y.

May

The Buitoni Macaroni Corp., New York, N.Y., brings out a frozen stuffed lasagne and a shell macaroni au gratin.

The Borden Co. is planning a line of 15 frozen fruits and vegetables under the Borden label.

June

A new distribution policy announced by Birds Eye Division of General Foods Corp., New York; it will enter into no exclusive or restrictive selling agreements with any customer.

July

The new 20-volume Collier's Encyclopedia is the first recognized and authoritative reference work of its kind to include a special section on the history and development of the frozen foods industry and its products.

August

The old Polar label, used until 1947 by the Polar Frosted Food Co., is revived for a standard (or B) grade line by Cedergreen Packing Corp., which bought Polar four years earlier.

September

The Shrimp Ahoy frozen cocktail and cooked shrimp brand line purchased by SeaPak Corp., St. Simons Island, Ga., from the Miami Packing Co., Hackensack, N.J.

October

Retail B brands found disfavor among a majority of distributors surveyed; although only 52% expressed opposition to the concept, 73% did not handle B brands and, of these, 67% did not plan to. Even among those handling them, 30% opposed the idea but handled them under pressure from retailers who wanted them.

Grilled cheese sandwiches added to the Mae Rich line of Nomar Foods, Inc., New York. The waffled sandwiches are ready to heat in a toaster.

Popcorn, prepared for home popping, brought out by Popcorn Products, Inc., Milwaukee, Wis., under the name Three-Minute Paddycorn.

Cooking in a plastic bag, a method said to make roasting turkey and other kinds of frozen poultry as simple as boiling water, described by Bradley Dewey, president, Dewey and Almy Chemical Co.

November

New, double-deck FF cases ("Twin-Dex" cabinets) were installed in a Clark Market in Los Angeles, resulting in an increase of FF sales to 4% of total volume.

Beatrice shelves frozen milk and its chocolate milk-base concentrate because of restrictions on civilian use of tin. Clinton H. Haskell, president of Beatrice Foods Co., said, "We didn't feel this was any time to bring out a new product requiring a tin container."

December

The campaign to persuade Florida juice concentrators to label their product as of Florida origin gains headway as Snow Crop, Pasco and Fosgate signified their intention to go along with it. Sealdsweet has already designed a label with the word "Florida" superimposed on a juice-dripping orange. Minute Maid, however, hesitates to put "Florida" on cans going to California.

1952

February

Three citrus associations consolidate, merging their activities. The Florida Canners Association took over the information services of the Canners League of Florida as well as administration of the program of the Citrus Processors Association, which represented pulp and molasses producers.

Introduction of a frozen version of the previously refrigerated Sara Lee Cream Cheesecake for national distribution by the Kitchens of Sara Lee, Chicago, marks the first appearance of this brand in the FF cabinet. The item was processed by Gottfried Baking Co., New York, N.Y.

March

Consumer survey made with support of Crowell-Collier Publishing Co. Research Dept. presenting comparable results of a similar survey made three years earlier (April 1949), shows 11% increase in families buying FF (from 76% to 84%); 56% of buyers now serve FF more than once a week, compared to 39% in 1949; there was a 220% increase in FF buyers serving juice concentrates.

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The first QFF "Almanac of the Frozen Foods Industry" appears in this issue. The 20-page section includes not only statistics and tables of prices but maps and charts and a summary of OPS (Office of Price Stabilization) regulations and other miscellaneous data.

April

Plans for providing the home freezer owner with regular supplies of FF, later dubbed "food clubs," are springing up all over the country, most tied in with the sale of a freezer. Some plans are sound, others are strictly promotional, but most circumvent the retailer. QFF advocates case lot sales from retailers at 10-to -15% discounts, on some sort of distributor-retailer participation plan.

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May

Pocket edition of QFF announced for launching in June; it will carry material different from that in issues of the "Master Edition," in a 4-inch by 6-inch format like Quick magazine.

June

The consumer never had it so good: concentrates were selling at two for 25 cents; two 8-ounce packages of peas for 29 cents; a 12-ounce package of strawberries at 29 cents. But a QFF editorial notes that while the trend to price-cutting is attracting thousands, perhaps millions, of new FF users monthly, it is threatening to pauperize the industry, and the line between A and B brands is becoming indistinct.

July

Separation in reconstitued orange juice was prevented through a new and secret process developed by Birds Eye Division of General Foods, according to James P. Delafield, product manager for Birds Eye concentrates.

Sale of Welch Grape Juice Co. properties to its growers for $15 million arranged; affected were the 4,000 grower members of the National Grape Cooperative Association scattered through most grape-growing areas of the country.

September

"The Locker Plant," part of the title of the magazine from April 1941 (QUICK FROZEN FOODS and THE LOCKER PLANT), dropped from the cover. From September 1942, it had its own section in the rear of the magazine, with its own section cover which, from June 1949, gave it the title "The 'Grade A' Locker Plant." With this issue the section was retitled "The Food Club and the Locker Plant," and included home freezer news as well.

The Quick Frozen Foods Association, Chicago, announced its intention to expand to include members from the Middle Western states. Its new name would be Central States Frozen Food Association. Charles Peterson, of E. A. Aaron & Bros., was president of the group.

October

General Foods left the shrimp industry with the sale of its subsidiary, General Seafoods, Inc., to J. Lawrence Alphen and Associates, following the recent purchase of its shrimp interests in Mexico by Booth Fisheries. General Foods' Shrimp and Oyster Division will continue to handle oysters and clams, but it is expected that the name would be changed.

1953

January

A booklet on how to handle frozen foods, entitled Protecting Frozen Foods, has been published by the National Association of Frozen Food Packers, and is expected to have wide distribution throughout the trade.

Stokely's Honor Brand, the frozen food division of Stokely-Van Camp, Inc., has redesigned its labels and is progressively changing over its entire line of frozen foods to the new packages, which stress the Stokely rather than the Honor Brand name.

Pot pies are shaping up to be a bigger factor in the FF cabinet than they have in the past, thanks largely to a Birds Eye promotion begun in the fall, together with a refund offer by Swanson. Morton is adding an 8-ounce pie to its present 6 1/2-ounce and 11-ounce offerings. Other companies coming out with pot pies or weighing their changes are J. D. Jewell, Honor Brand, Fox DeLuxe Foods, and Libby, McNeill & Libby. A Seabrook Farms spokesman denied rumors of that company's considering entering the field.

February

Aluminum foil freezing, baking and serving dishes for frozen food packers were in the offing from Ekco Products Co., according to a spokesman, following a line for consumer outlets shown at the National Housewares Show in Chicago.

March

Frozen foods accounted for 4.8% of the chains' total food dollar volume, according to information supplied by 131 chain store buyers, a figure which is higher than any previously reported from national studies. The study was undertaken by a joint effort of QFF with Quick magazine.

Frozen Dinner was the brand name of the heat-and-eat meal on a three-way divided aluminum platter advertised by Quaker State Foods Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa.

April

FF heads the list of rapidly growing food industries, according to a survey by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Business Economics, which defined rapid growth as an average annual growth rate of 7 1/2% or more between 1940 and 1951. Frozen foods had a rate of growth of 17 1/2%, followed by canned fruit juices with a 12% rate of growth.

John M. Fox, president of the Minute Maid Corp., elected to the board of directors of the Morton Packing Co., Louisville, Ky., packer of frozen meat pies, it is announced by George E. Egger, Morton president.

May

"Prepared frozen foods, in a scant three years, have turned from the industry's stepchild into its golden-haired boy. Many distributors report specialties now constitute up to 40% of total volume. The trend, as QFF has predicted for years, is now shaping up in the direction of main course dishes, featuring meats, chicken or seafoods. Even complete meals are coming back rapidly."

June

Food clubs are through, according to John Bess, head of the Freezer Owners Association and one of the chief food club plans' proponents. The trouble was, he said, that most food clubs deviated from the original idea, which was to sell wholesale. "They merely attempted to replace one type of retailing with another and, consequently, they could not deliver the savings they had promised."

Juice concentrates are available in more than 150 different labels; QFF's special packaging section illustrates 47 6-ounce FCOJ cans alone, including one from Tropicana and several chain and wholesale grocery labels. Four frozen coffee concentrates are available in glass jars with screw tops. Three 6-ounce tins of concentrated tomato juice are also shown.

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July

First Southwestern Frozen Food Association convention is held at the Shamrock Hotel, Houston, Tex.

Horse meat packers anticipate curtailment of their expanding industry as authorities estimate dwindling supply of horses for processing into pet foods will last from 7 to 10 years. Some are considering making a changeover to the solitary packing and canning of relatively cheaper beef, both for human consumption and animal foods.

August

Potato patties and other products, including french fries and diced potatoes, are now under production by the recently formed Ore-Ida Potato Products, Inc., Ontario, Ore., an affiliate of Oregon Frozen Foods being run as a separate operation, according to F. Nephi Grigg, president and sales manager.

Franchises for its new frozen raw doughnuts are offered on a nationwide scale by Dix Minit Donut Corp., Skokie, Ill.

Frozen fried fish sticks, packed in any real volume only in the last six months, have grown to capture a fair share of the market according to industry reports.

October

The Tyler Fixture Corporation, Niles, Mich., manufacturer of refrigerated food store equipment, has changed its name to Tyler Refrigeration Corporation, according to Robert L. Tyler, president.

November

C. A. Swanson & Sons, Omaha, Neb., is the first nationally known name to join the growing ranks of frozen multiple-item dinners with a turkey dinner consisting of sliced turkey, dressing, giblet gravy, sweet potato and green beans in a divided aluminum tray. An aluminum foil covering is said to cut preparation time in half. Retail price was reported to be around $1.

December

An intensive promotion drive in the New York metropolitan area will spearhead a national sales campaign backing the new Chinese-style frozen food line of Chun King Sales Co., Duluth, Minn. The company is packing chicken, beef and meatless chow meins as its first three frozen items.

1954

January

The public cold storage warehouse is growing in importance, and, according to an editorial in the Frozen Foods Forum, it may hold the key to the future of distribution. This has come about through the establishment of more drayage or trucking operations working directly from warehouse to retailer. The perfect tie-up of the future may be the frozen food distributor and the local warehouse.

No more orange groves within 50 miles of Los Angeles 25 years from now is the prediction of Harold Ryan, Agricultural Commissioner for the city. Inasmuch as 12,000 acres of orange trees have been uprooted to make room for real estate, he said, "in 25 years or so all our oranges may be coming from Florida."

Swanson's "TV Dinner" is introduced to 50 principal cities. The 12-ounce turkey dinner, retailing in the first chains to handle it at 89 cents, has an outer wrap of six-color printed MSAT cellophane laminated to tissue parchment.

March

Campbell Soup Co., Camden, N.J., has joined the FF ranks with the test marketing of four frozen soups in the Philadelphia area. They are: green pea with ham, chicken and vegetable, oyster stew and cream of shrimp.

Star-Kist Foods, Terminal Island, Calif., is the first major canned fish packer to introduce frozen tuna pie under its own label, with Van Camp Sea Food, also of Terminal Island, to follow suit shortly, marketing tuna pie under its Chicken of the Sea label.

Lykes Bros. now owns a dominant portion of Pasco Packing Co., Dade City, Fla., but no change in the Pasco management or operation is considered at present, according to Joseph T. Lykes, president of both firms. Lykes purchased 20% of Pasco's stock in 1949.

April

Howard C. Boerner appointed director of marketing of Seabrook Farms Co., Bridgeton, N.J., following his resignation as national sales manager of Minute Maid Corp. At the same time, Boerner announced the formation of H. C. Boerner Co., located at New York City, to provide a consulting and sales service to the food industry.

May

QFF introduces its first Institutional Section devoted to FF for the institutional/food service field.

June

Whale meat is being used by one packer for frozen pet food, in the face of decreasing availability of horse meat. Frozen pet foods are about 6% of prepared pet food sales.

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Seabrook Farms Co., Bridgeton, N.J., elects John M. Seabrook president, succeeding his father, Charles F. Seabrook, who becomes chairman of the board. At the same time, C. Courtney Seabrook, previously vice president in charge of sales, is named senior vice president of the company.

July

Snake River Trout Co., Buhl, Idaho, marks its 25th anniversary as producer of Tingey's 1,000 Springs brand with plans to up its frozen pack to 500,000 pounds, according to Robert A. Erkins, president and general manager.

Stouffer Restaurants, Cleveland, Ohio, has advanced its plans to market a line of frozen prepared dishes under its own label when the restaurant chain opened a new freezing plant. The company has for several years packaged and sold frozen dishes from its Shaker Stouffer Restaurant in Cleveland, but last year began test marketing several items in local retail stores.

Stokely-Van Camp, Oakland, Calif., buys the controlling interest in PictSweet Foods, Mt. Vernon, Wash.; a spokesman said both the Stokely Honor Brand and the PictSweet labels will be continued and merchandised vigorously.

A joint convention is planned by the Southern Frozen Food Distributors Association and the Southwestern Frozen Food Association for Sept. 30-Oct. 2 in New Orleans.

August

Large size polyethylene bags are becoming increasingly popular in the FF industry. For instance, Minute Maid is packaging three cans of orange juice in a poly bag for multiple unit sales. It is possible that the time will come when a 10-ounce poly bag, attractively printed, may be used for the retail sale of frozen vegetables and fruits by packers who want to be competitive from a price basis.

September

The Birds Eye Story, a 25th anniversary tribute to the organization which in large part pioneered the frozen food industry, comprises a 62-page section in this issue.

Aunt Jemima pancakes introduced by Quaker Oats Co., Chicago, Ill., marking that company's debut in the frozen foods field--and the probable debut of frozen pancakes, though they have been the subject of considerable experimentation since the success of frozen waffles. Mrs. Burke's Foods, Philadelphia, Pa., also introduced a line of frozen pancakes throughout the Middle Atlantic states. Quaker Oats' pancakes are initially limited to the Canton, Ohio, market area.

FrigiDinner, Inc., Philadelphia, Pa., manufacturer of precooked frozen meals, is granted a patent for aluminum platters covered with aluminum foil used in the processing of the meals. According to Jacob Fisher, president, all styles and shapes of aluminum platters with foil covers and their multiple uses are included in the patent.

October

TV Dinner brand is registered with the Patent Office by C. A. Swanson & Sons, Omaha, Neb., filed as of Aug. 6, 1953, with use claimed since July 23, 1953, for frozen turkey dinner. Appearance in the Official Gazette of the U.S. Patent Office is often a year or more after filing. Ranch Hand brand is also filed for by Chip Steak Company, Oakland, Calif., Aug. 25, 1953, for a number of frozen meat products, with claim for use since November 1948.

Specialty packers form a national body as the National Prepared Frozen Food Processors Association is chartered in New York, with members of Philadelphia and New York organizations forming its first chapters.

Kitchens of Sara Lee, Chicago, Ill., continuing its sales expansion, is now in 17 states, mainly in the Middle West. It has appointed Beatrice Foods Co. as distributor in Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, for its butter coffee cake, butter pound cake and cream cheese cake. The cakes are distributed as frozen baked goods beyond a 300-mile radius of the company's Chicago bakery.

British Columbia Packers Ltd., Vancouver, B.C., announced the purchase of Freeman Certi-Fresh Foods, Los Angeles, Calif. Arthur and Max Freeman, former principals of CertiFresh, will remain with the company during the transition period.

November

Special section on Seabrook Farms, which now has its own post office, Seabrook, N.J., with 50,000 acres of crops "comprising the world's largest farming-freezing operation."

Trading on the popularity of fish sticks, meat and poultry packers launch stick varieties including ham sticks from Geo. A Hormel, beef sticks by Goren Packing Co., chicken sticks from J.D. Jewell, while C. A. Swanson & Sons is offering precooked sticks made of chicken and turkey meat combined. Another company, Frozen Farm Products, Inc., is manufacturing Chik-Stik, a breaded chicken product on a wooden stick, under the Roseport brand.

December

A $100 prize is offered by QFF for the best design of a new FF cabinet which will create more footage in no more floor space: "... a multi-tier case which will enable the retailer to display a bigger variety of frozen foods by utilizing the only space left in his store; a cabinet which will make sales by displaying frozen foods vertically as well as horizontally."

Snow Crop Division of Clinton Foods is purchased by Minute Maid Corporation for nearly $40 million. The merger is seen by the citrus industry as having a stabilizing effect on the market.