Long ago and far away ...
1955
February
Refrigerated orange juice, which has gained steadily in consumer favor since last summer, has failed to cut into sales of frozen orange juice concentrate. There was some indication that it was cutting into sales of whole oranges. Five Florida packers pack the refrigerated juice:
March
International Frozen Foods Section, the forerunner of Quick Frozen Foods International, includes 12 pages of news and advertisements from Europe and Japan.
Minute Maid Story is told in a 36-page section, celebrating the company's 10th anniversary.
New England distributors met in Worcester, Mass., to make plans for the formation of a regional association.
Campbell Soup Co., Camden, N.J., is now distributing its frozen soups nationwide, following six months of market-testing in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
A vast underground freezer warehouse carved out of solid rock near Kansas City, Kan., is opened by Inland Cold Storage Company. It has capacity for 2,500 carloads of FF, and is called the "World's Biggest Natural Icebox."
April
More than a million dollars will be spent to build a new refrigerated warehouse and processing plant in Gloucester, Mass., in a joint effort by Gorton-Pew Fisheries Co. and the Quincy Market Cold Storage & Warehouse Co. The two-story concrete and masonry building will have a capacity for 12 million pounds of frozen fish.
A&P is considering marketing its own private-label orange concentrate as well as several other private-label frozen foods. Up to the present A&P's only private label frozen foods have been the Cap'n John line of seafoods.
C. A. Swanson & Sons, Omaha, Neb., is acquired by Campbell Soup Co., Camden, N.J. Both the Campbell and the Swanson labels will be continued, and the companies will be operated separately. It was reported that new non-concentrate frozen specialties would be marketed under the Swanson brand, while Campbell would continue to handle frozen soups and other types of concentrates.
May, 1955
"The latest success story of the cooked and prepared frozen foods industry (is) the frozen meal on a platter. The only step remaining now is to pack a meal that includes soup and dessert. And it is reported that Campbell Soup Co. and its C. A. Swanson division are readying such a step...."
Hawaiian Punch concentrate has been introduced in selected West Coast areas by Pacific Citrus Products Co., Fullerton, Calif.
McCain Produce Co., Ltd., of E. Florenceville, N.B., Canada, is Planning the erection of a plant to process and freeze vegetables and fruits in that area. The owner is A. H. McCain.
June
An atom bomb blast, rated at 40 kilotons, failed to appreciably change flavor and color of frozen foods stored in the mock city at the Yucca Flats, Nev., test site. Samples exposed in a home freezer in the kitchen of a concrete slab house 4,700 feet from ground zero showed no physical damage, were rigidly frozen and showed no radioactivity four hours after the blast. Samples buried in a metal, insulated box just beneath the soil 1,270 feet from ground zero had to wait to be checked two days because the box was still "hot," but showed only nominal radiation, comparable to that of a radium watch dial, and taste tests showed very little difference between them and the ones at 4,700 feet.
A cellular glass insulating material with a ceramic finish is announced by Pittsburgh Corning Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa. Called "Duraface Foamglas," the new material also has moisture-proof qualities, and unsupported walls can be built of the blocks because of their rigidity and high compressive strength.
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Banquet's turkey dinner appears for the first time on QFF's monthly price lists; a 12-ounce platter, it sells in Chicago for 69 cents.
Luchow's, a well-known New York restaurant, entered the frozen field with three precooked items, lentil soup with frankfurters, Salisbury steak with mushroom sauce and Swedish meatballs in an herb cream sauce. They are packed in airtight pliofilm bags, which are dropped into boiling water to prepare.
July
Carnation Co., Los Angeles, Calif., has entered the frozen food field by purchasing Mrs. Lee's Pies, Los Angeles, packer of Simple Simon brand frozen pies and cookie rolls.
First of several precooked dishes introduced by Howard Johnson's restaurant chain is a 16-ounce pack of chicken croquettes; distribution is throughout New York and New England.
September
Irradiated foods are discussed at length in a progress report; no final conclusions are made, save that its threat to frozen foods is many years away.
Consolidated Foods has purchased American Frigid Dough, Chicago, a pioneer packer of cooked and prepared foods. New products will appear under the Frigid Dough label and their distribution is to be expanded to a national level.
With the formation of Aquafoods Corp., David Islands, Tampa. Fla., the Carnation label will be used on a full line of frozen and canned seafood products. Aquafoods, which has a sublicense to use the Carnation trademark through Griffith-Durney Co., Los Angeles, Calif. (William W. Durney, president, is a vice president of Aquafoods.), has contracted to market part of the output of 17 fish processors under the Carnation brand, and is negotiating with 15 more.
October
Sam Martin joins QFF editorial staff as Associate Editor.
Red L Foods Corp. is the new name adopted by Louis L. Libby Food Products, Long Island City, N.Y., to realize benefits from a closer association with the company's Red L brand name, adopted two years ago, according to Robert S. Graves, president.
November
Pet Milk buys Pet-Ritz Foods, processor of frozen fruit and berry pies with plants at Frankford and Beulah, Mich. George Petritz continues to head the operation, which will be known as the Pet-Ritz Division of Pet Milk Co. This is Pet Milk Co.'s first venture into frozen foods.
The Continental Baking Co., New York, N.Y., is negotiating to acquire the Morton Packing Co., Louisville, Ky., processor of frozen meat and fruit pies.
December
QFF's Retail Edition becomes standard size, replacing the Pocket Edition, and is bound into the regular issue, as well as sent separately to 27,000 retailers throughout the country.
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Winner of cabinet design contest is announced by QFF: David P. Walker of Los Angeles, Calif. Walker's design combines a bottom bin with enclosed shelves above and behind it, adaptable to an island configuration by doubling the total unit back to back with a common refrigeration system. A special award was made to Karl Weber, president of Weber Showcase & Fixture Co., Los Angeles, Calif., for completing and bringing out the first practical multi-tier FF cabinets, which have up to 66% more capacity than the average single-deck case.
1956
January
Minute Maid sales top $100 million for the first time, as a result of the increase in volume made possible by the acquisition of Snow Crop, nearly tripling its previous year's sales figure.
Philip J. Rizzuto is elected president of Southland Frozen Foods, New York, N.Y., following the resignation of Theodore U. Delson. Rizzuto was founder of Southland with a plant at Plant City, Fla. Southland directors also named D. Herman Kennedy vice president and Charles Garfinkel secretary-treasurer.
The merger of Morton Packing Co. with the Continental Baking Co., New York, N.Y., is resulting in no change in operations or personnel; only the name has been changed, to Morton Frozen Foods, Inc. Its general offices remain in Louisville, Ky.
February
TreeSweet Products Co., Santa Ana, Calif., has completed negotiations with Di Giorgio Fruit Corp., San Francisco, whereby Di Giorgio has agreed to acquire an interest in TreeSweet and to make additional funds available to the company. This will provide TreeSweet with capital for the expansion of its Florida processing facilities.
March
Macaroni and cheese in an 8 1/2-ounce single-serving package is introduced by Morton Frozen Foods, Louisville, Ky., supported by an advertising effort featuring a three-for-the-price-of-two introductory offer.
Mrs. Smith's Pie Co., Philadelphia, Pa., fresh pie processor, is planning a new frozen pie plant; at present, a portion of the company's Pottstown, Pa., plant is devoted to larger or institutional frozen pies.
Nutritional comparison of FF and canned foods is made by OFF using figures from a nutrition research project sponsored by the National Association of Frozen Food Packers, the "Wisconsin report," for frozen foods, and from the National Canners Association and the USDA for canned foods. Values for FF are consistently over those for canned foods.
April
Reaction to OFF's comparison of nutritive values of FF and canned included many congratulatory messages from packers, both on and off the record; requests for reprints of the article for use by FF salesmen; and special meetings by three canner groups to determine what counteraction, if any, should be taken. Packers who asked for reprints declared that the comparison would be especially effective in the institutional field, because dietitions and other buyers concerned with special menus would be impressed with the nutritional data.
May
Willy Ley, perhaps the best-known science writer in the U.S., is author of an article in QFF entitled "Spacemen of Earth Satellite to Subsist on Frozen Foods." He cites the facts that FF packaging is lighter by far than either cans or glass jars, thus saving fuel, and that precooked foods would be preferable to those needing to be cooked, to cut the amount of heat energy radiated in the satellite.
June
H. P. Hood & Sons, Boston, Mass., enters the citrus concentrate field with the purchase of Minute Maid Corp.'s Dunedin, Fla., FCOJ plant. Minute Maid's sale of this plant fulfills in part the terms of a consent decree filed with the Federal government last year in which Minute Maid agreed to dispose of juice concentrating plants at Dunedin and Frostproof, Fla.
Murry Berger is appointed national sales manager of Aquafoods Corp., Tampa, Fla., distributor of frozen seafoods under the Carnation label. Berger, northeastern regional sales manager for SeaPak Corp. for the past five years, specializing in institutional sales, will direct this aspect of Aquafoods as well as its projected retail line.
Gorton's opens its million-dollar fish plant at Gloucester, Mass., and installs a continuous government inspection service. Formerly known as Gorton-Pew Fisheries Ltd., the company will henceforth be known officially as Gorton's of Gloucester.
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August
J. M. Korn, a director and one of the founders of the Waffle Corp. of America, New York, N.Y., and owner of his own advertising agency in Philadelphia, died July 23.
September
Stouffer's completes its new $1.35 million addition to its Cleveland processing plant, paving the way for expansion of the marketing of its frozen cooked foods on a national scale through a 700% increase in production capacity.
The Los Angeles Superior Court upheld the right of more than 120 southern California markets to sell frozen, prepackaged meats, poultry and fish regardless of current labor union contracts. Judge Phillip H. Richards also noted that the clauses of the labor contract which require that all meats, poultry and fish be cut and wrapped where they are sold are in restraint of trade and violate both state and Federal antitrust laws.
Kitchens of Sara Lee, Chicago, Ill., has been acquired by Consolidated Foods Corp., Chicago, according to a joint announcement by S. M. Kennedy, Consolidated president, and Charles W. Lubin, who will continue as president of Sara Lee and will also serve on Consolidated's board of directors. Sales of the Kitchens of Sara Lee have grown from $400,000 in 1951 to $5 million in 1955, according to Lubin, and there is anticipation that that figure will double in 1956.
Welch Grape Juice Co., Westfield, N.Y., has sold out to National Grape Cooperative Association, its stock delivered to National Sept. 1 in compliance with an option drawn up in 1952.
October
Mrs. Paul's Kitchens, Phildelphia, Pa., introduces what is believed to be the first seafood dinner packed in a sectionalized aluminum tray. The 7-ounce dinner includes seven items: shrimp, deviled crab, scallops, fish sticks, fishlets, french fried potatoes and peas.
"The Merchants Refrigerating Company Story" is a special section on this refrigerated warehouse company, which has 10 warehouses across the country with an aggregate 18,581,000 cubic feet of below-zero storage space.
November
Clarence Birdseye, known as the founding father of the quick frozen foods industry, died Oct. 7 following a heart attack in New York. He was 69.
Minute Maid introduces a new line of 26 vegetables and seven fruits with a special introductory offer of 60 cents off on each dozen to retailers throughout New York State and Erie, Pa.
1957
February
Luchow's precooked FF business is purchased by Seabrook Farms, Seabrook, N.Y. The transaction in no way involves Luchow's restaurant in New York City.
Boston Bonnie Fisheries, Boston, Mass., claims to be the first plant in the world to process frozen fillets under continuous USDA inspection. The company's fish sticks and frozen fried scallops are also covered by the service, and intentions are to have all of its seafood products government inspected.
March
Swanson's "TV" brand Souper Dinner begins test-marketing in San Francisco, Oakland, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Pittsburgh and Buffalo. It consists of three courses; old-fashioned vegetable-with-beef soup; main course, fried chicken and mashed potatoes; dessert, apple pie. Each course comes in an individual rigid-foil container; cooking time on all three is identical.
Precooked, battered poultry parts are added to the Swanson line by Campbell Soup Co. A Campbell spokesman said that, contrary to industry rumors, the precooked line will not replace the company existing line of frozen uncooked poultry.
McCain Foods Ltd. opens a new processing plant for FF in East Florenceville, N.B., Canada. A company spokesman describes it as the largest quick freezing plant in Canada. The company packs french fried potatoes, peas and strawberries.
April
The Carnation label, granted in 1955 to the Aquafoods Corp., Tampa, Fla., for use on seafood products, has reverted to William Durney, Inc., according to W. W. Durney, president. The marketing activities of frozen seafoods involving the Carnation label will be carried on by another corporation of which Durney is president, the Seafare Corp., Los Angeles. The Seafare Corp. has three regional corporate units situated in the West, Midwest and East; plans for a fourth corporate unit for the South are under consideration. Murry Berger, president of the eastern corporation, said Seafare will assume the marketing role formerly performed by Aquafoods, and no break in the continuity of supply is anticipated.
Waffle Corp. of America changes its name to Downyflake Foods Inc., in line with its brand use for waffles and pancakes, to pave the way for an expanded line of frozen prepared foods. The company recently acquired 1896 House Products, Williamstown, Mass., a packer of frozen turkey sticks.
May
The Doughnut Corp. of America, New York, N.Y., has changed its name to DCA Food Industries Inc., according to David M. Levitt, president.
June
Protan jelly coated mackerel made history by being the first frozen food product used by the Horn & Hardart restaurant chain in its world-famous Automats. Ramfjeld & Co., New York, N.Y., are exclusive sales agents for Norwegian mackerel frozen in Protan jelly, which is also being sold in many A&P super markets, and they are also acting as leasing agent for the Protan jelly freezing process for firms in this country.
TARS (Trans-American Refrigerated Services, Ltd.) is an organization of five cold storage companies--Merchants Refrigerating Co., New York, N.Y.; Quincy Market & Cold Storage Co., Boston, Mass.; Continental Freezers of Illinois, Chicago, Ill.; Wisconsin Cold Storage, Milwaukee, Wis., and Terminal Ice & Cold Storage, Portland, Ore.--reformed to coordinate services and make available coast-to-coast warehousing facilities for frozen foods. The member companies have a total of 50 million cubic feet of refrigerated storage space and maintain 27 warehouses in 21 important production and marketing locations.
July
Minute Maid Corp announces it will move its national headquarters from New York to Orlando, Fla., November 1, at the beginning of the company's fiscal year.
Ocoma's calorie-counted dinners are said to be the first such dinners offered by a well-known frozen food company. Three varieties, turkey, chicken and beef, will show the calorie count on the labels, ranging from 230 to 490. Dinners will not be bland and tasteless, according to a spokesman, and will be priced competitively with other frozen dinners.
"The Stouffer Success Story" is a special section on the Stouffer Corporation's growth from its original restaurants to its success in FF.
Pepperidge Farms, Inc., Norwalk, Conn., has acquired Black Horse Frozen Pastry, Keene, N.H., marking the entry of Pepperidge Farm, a baker of bread and rolls, into the frozen food field.
October
Seabrook Farms takes over the Snow Crop retail line of vegetables and fruits from Minute Maid Corp. in a deal involving no cash transaction; Snow Crop still has title to the brand and is licensing it to Seabrook, which will pay a nominal royalty. Seabrook benefits by acquiring a nationally advertised label, 10 new markets and a big Middle Western territory, while Minute Maid, which had to buy most of its production for the Snow Crop label, unloads an unprofitable and unwieldy operation and gets back primarily into the juice business.
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Luchow trade name is dropped by Seabrook Farms, and the entrees formerely sold under that label are marketed under the Seabrook brand. However, every label carries the legend: "Prepared from a recipe featured at famous Luchow's, New York."
November
Headquarters for the Stokely-PictSweet frozen foods division of Stokely-Van Camp will move from Mt. Vernon, Wash., to Oakland, Calif., by the end of the year. The move returns the FF division to the former home of Stokely's Honor Brand, which was moved to Mount Vernon with the acquisition of PictSweet.
John Inglis Frozen Foods Co., Modesto, Calif., becomes a division of the Harris Manufacturing Co., Stockton, Calif., all the stock of which becomes the property of the owners of the stock of John Inglis Frozen Foods. All the directors and officers of Inglis become directors and officers of the Harris company in the same positions they held with Inglis.
December
H. C. Boerner Co., Great Neck, N.Y., named metropolitan New York broker for Minute Maid and Snow Corp retail lines, according to Hamilton Stone, vice president in charge of sales for Minute Maid Corp., Orlando, Fla. Howard C. Boerner, president of the brokerage, was Minute Maid's first sales manager, resigning in 1953 to organize the brokerage firm.
1958
January
Florida freeze: The most severe freeze since 1940 brings an estimate of 25 to 35% less concentrate in 1958, and strong prices for the next two years. Minute Maid the only large processor with sizable 1957 carryover.
Direct deliveries to chains. As the role of warehouses in FF distribution changes, QFF finds 8.7% engaged in drayage, direct delivery service, to chain super markets--and 26.2% seriously considering it.
Boil-in-bag. Seabrook expands its new line of frozen entrees in plastic pouches with the addition of four entrees, well seasoned and using such a quantity of wine that the company purchased a state liquor license.
February
Not by foot alone. Dollar volume per linear foot not a proper measure for a successful super market operation, as survey shows an FF cabinet producing more than double the national average of $22 per foot may actually cost retailer more in labor costs and lost potential sales than the purchase of additional cabinets.
Into the diet market. Two processors--Ocoma Foods Co., Omaha, first with three dinners, and Diets of Rochester, Rochester, with eight dinners--take aim at a dietetic foods market that attained sales of $150 million in 1956.
March
TV and FF. A Television Bureau of Advertising survey discloses that the most avid television viewers are also the heaviest users of frozen foods.
Breaded shrimp standards. Raw breaded shrimp standards, finally arrived at, permit a 50% level of breading--and ensure controversy and a vigorous response from all concerned.
Cargo containers. Refrigerated portable cargo units, known as the Adapto Materials Handling System manufactured by the American Car and Foundry Division of ACF Industries, transport frozen foods through many layovers without intermediate warehouses.
April
Under glass. Peaches frozen in glass are marketed successfully by Glacier Frozen Foods, Sanger, Calif., which believes that vacuum-packing will cut down deterioration of the peaches on defrosting.
More boil-in-bag. And what a variety: griddle cakes and syrup, bacon and eggs, franks and sauerkraut, single-serving vegetables, stews, soups, baking soda biscuits and dozens of others. QFF boils over.
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Lunch box. Hi-Grade Food Distributors of Los Angeles packages a frozen lunch box with a handle, containing sandwiches, Jello fruit cocktail dessert, two cookies, napkin and fork.
A packaging first. Gorton's of Gloucester is first to use a tear-strip opening device on frozen seafood. Dispensing with the overwrap, Gorton's uses a new packaging machine said to provide a tighter seal.
May, 1958
The cost of living: From 1953 to 1958 retail costs of food, exclusive of FF, rise 15% while the average retail price of frozen foods declines 18%. Four-fifths of the March 1958 advance in living costs is attributed to food.
Pinpointing pizza: In the first national frozen pizza survey, QFF discerns regional sales patterns--sausage pizza tops in Middle West and individual-serving cheese a leader in East and South. Round pizza is more popular than rectangular, and thick-crusted pizzas are preferred in New Orleans and many Middle Western states.
The recession and FF. Packers of both national and private label brands report that volume and profits are untouched by the recession; that sales were definitely higher in the first three months of 1958; that net profits were higher in most cases; and some report the best quarter in history--and prices have not markedly declined from the previous year.
June
Capital investment in frozen foods in estimated at $5.25 billion, with $1.8 billion in home freezers, $1 billion in processing, $500 million each in zero-degree warehousing, refrigerated trailers and lockers, $462 million in distribution, $400 million in retail store cabinets and backroom storage and $93 million in refrigerated railroad cars.
Vending machines. Rudd-Melikian markets a vending machine designed to store frozen foods and dispense them hot, anticipates 28% of in-plant populations will use for lunch.
July
The Department of Justice takes the field against the frozen foods industry by: (1) announcing an investigation into the possibility of monopolistic price fixing as a cause of high-priced FCOJ; (2) indicting the Frozen Food Distributors Association of Greater New York for conspiring to restrain interstate trade; and (3) scheduling House subcommittee hearings on retail frozen food prices.
Campbell concedes. FrigiDinner, Inc.. of Philadelphia, successfully settles a suit against Campbell Soup Co. for infringement of its patent on aluminum trays that must be heated with foil covers. Campbell purchases a paid-up license for the duration of patent.
August
Institutional boil-in-bag. Shoreland Freezers of Salisbury, Md., offers a food service line of individualy portioned servings of boil-in-bag vegetables complete with seasoning and butter, with 10 different 2 1/2-ounce portions.
New transit era. A combined Congressional committee approves the HouseSenate Transportation Bill. All interstate motor hauling of frozen fruits and vegetables will now be under ICC regulations, excepting seafoods.
September
"Bake-on-Premises" pies. Farm Crest Food Products, Detroit, Mich., installs oven equipment next to the frozen foods counter in super markets, cooks frozen fruit pies, and averages sales of never less than 1,200 pies at one location in a week.
NARW names Powell. Richard M. Powell gets the nod as new executive vice president of the National Association of Refrigerated Warehouses.
October
Global acquires Flagstaff. Global Frozen Foods, a New York distributor, acquires Flagstaff Frozen Food Associates, Newark, N.J., strengthening its position as a leading area distributor while marking its entrance into the institutional field through Flagstaff's products and accounts.
Rocky Marciano, undefeated world heavyweight champion, enters the frozen foods business with Park Products Co., Asbury Park, N.J., which will introduce Rocky's frozen Italian specialties.
Containerization. Of potential importance to the industry is the new shipping concept, containerization, which can reduce packing costs and cut handling charges and losses from damage claims. At present, 39 U.S. railroads and two in Canada offer piggy-back service.
December
FTC investigates. The FTC announces that frozen food buying by large retail outlets will get special attention during its forthcoming investigation of competitive methods and practices used in marketing food.
1959
January
Senator Hubert Humphrey, as chairman of a Senate subcommittee on Retailing Distribution and Fair Trade Practices, says, "Smaller frozen foods producers are finding it progressively more difficult to obtain display space for their products. Aggressive Commission action now can help eliminate the bad marketing practices which seem to be spreading in the field."
Temperature standards. AFDOUS planning to proclaim code of temperature standards for FF handling. Among many contributing causes were spot checks by warehouse groups revealing only 46% of FF stored in display cases at zero or lower, and only 52% in backroom freezers at zero or lower.
Consumer Reports magazine judges 17 brands of frozen platters and rates them all good or very good, but "none qualified as Excellent because none was up to the quality of fine restaurant or expertly home-cooked fare."
February
Upright cooler with air curtain, announced by Hussmann Refrigerator Co., St. Louis, may be precursor of long-awaited, vertical cabinet displaying.
Frozen fruit pie disaster feared as price and cabinet wars bring specials as low as 29 cents. No profits left for promotion.
Iceland 'Products opens Samband brand processing plant in Steelton, Pa. Bjarni V. Magnusson', president, indicates program of broadening U.S. markets.
March
The top 15 FF packers do $681-715 million annually. Top six are Birds Eye, Minute Maid, Campbell-Swanson, Booth Fisheries, Stokely-PictSweet and Pasco Packing Co., the latter two achieving $45-50 million annually.
The top 12 chain stores do $821 million annually, estimates QFF. Leader is A & P with $280 million, a distant second is Safeway.
Nutrition. Massive study, underwritten by NAFFD, reveals frozens to be of more nutritive value than canned. The study's figures reveal that where a comparison is possible 47.5% of USDA's FF figures are underrated.
Aluminum foil pouch produced by Milprint, Inc., and used for precooked frozen meat and poultry.
Metal detectors becoming important to processors. Brilmayer Laboratories, N.Y., manufactures detector that automatically rejects contaminated packages.
April
Edwin T. Gibson, industry pioneer, dies. Gibson helped organize Birdseye Frosted Foods and was its first president. In 1938 he established International Frozen Foods. Elected first president of NAFFP in 1942. Had retired as executive V.P. of General Foods.
May
Southern vegetables--blackeye peas, whole and cut okra, sliced yellow crook-neck squash and greens--appear more and more in Northern markets.
Mexican foods, with their appeal to those who look for something different, can be the leader in prepared field, says Louis H. Stumberg, president of Patio Foods, Inc.
June
Seabrook Farms, Seabrook, N.J., sold for $3 million to Seeman Brothers, Inc., N.Y. Samuel Winokur, new Seabrook president, says expansion into national distribution will continue.
John I. Moone, founder of Snow Crop Marketers, dies at age 46. Snow Crop probably was first to sell direct to retailers. Moone left Snow Crop, with sales of $60 million, to form Concentrate Marketers.
George Mentley, an industry pioneer who joined Birds Eye as a salesman in 1934, retires as marketing .manager of the firm.
A Radarange microwave oven designed for fast cooking and eye appeal is introduced by Raytheon Manufacturing Co. for $2,595.
July
AFDOUS approves a uniform code of handling for the industry, a suggested guide for the 50 states. Backroom storage must be zero degrees F or lower, and retail cases must be capable of maintaining zero or lower.
Anniversary dinner in Springfield, Mass., celebrates 30th birthday of Birds Eye. The city proclaims June 15, 1959, as "Clarence Birdseye Memorial Day."
"Liquefreeze," a new liquid nitrogen freezing-shipping method developed by Isbrandtsen Co., Inc., N.Y., delivers cargo at zero degrees F or lower after month in transit.
October
First FF marketing guide, put together by QFF and Seabrook Farms's Harold L. Franklin, breaks down 100 leading metropolitan area FF markets by 21 factors, including all product categories, per capita purchases and chain sales.
Gerald E. Thomas appointed frozen foods product marketing manager for Campbell Soup Co.
Drive-ins are big and getting bigger as a market for frozen foods. Predicted 10 year growth from 37,106 units to 75,000. Henry's Drive-In, Inc., Detroit, Mich., with 20 franchised areas in 18 states, purchases 87% of its food frozen.
Rigid boilable plastic containers make test appearance in New York chains through a 12-ounce Italian shrimp marinara package from Elegante Food Products, Brooklyn, N.Y.
November
The prospect of irradiation as a method of food preservation goes up in smoke. Process had flunked out on flavor and wholesomeness, and then test animals fed the food developed internal bleeding, enlarged hearts, loss of fertility, poor eyesight and other deficiencies. U.S. Army cancels $7.5 million project.
December
Frozen flowers? Alan Thornton, manager of an Inverness, Scotland, freezing firm, claims to have licked freezing's tendency to make plants and blossoms brittle and disintegrate.
The FTC investigates FF buying, alleging practices including price discrimination, illegal receipt or payment of brokerage, discriminatory granting of advertising allowances, and knowing inducement of illegal prices and advertising and promotional allowances.
1960
January
Frozen candy. Wallace & Co., Brooklyn, markets frozen chocolate covered mints through super market chains.
Chock Full O' "Doughnuts." Restaurant chain Chock Full O' Nuts ventures in a new direction, selling its own doughnuts, frozen, in New York-area super markets.
Gorton's merges with Florida Frozen Food Processors, shrimp firm, to implement long-considered addition of shrimp to its list of seafoods. QFF predicts the merger/birth of another industry giant.
February
Russian reactions to the Birds Eye display of American frozen foods at the American National Exhibition in Moscow fascinate U.S. observers. Unfortunately, the three million who attended were not allowed to taste the frozen foods.
M. Crawford Pollock leaves position as director of marketing development for Campbell Soup Co. to join Green Giant. While with C. A. Swanson & Sons, Omaha, Pollock was a pioneer in national distribution of prepared foods.
March
Carl R. Fellers, retired head of the Department of Food Technology at the University of Massachusetts and a member of QFF's technical advisory board since the magazine's inception, dies.
April
Department of Defense spending approximately $70 million yearly on FF for Armed Forces and families, $18 million for ready-to-cook chicken fryers.
June
First liquid nitrogen production line freezer developed by Liquefreeze, subsidiary of Isbrandtsen Co., N.Y. Subjects food to minus 320 degrees F, reportedly freezes usually within five minutes.
Aluminum cans grow in importance as Minute Maid packs between six and seven million six-ounce cans of FCOJ in 1959-60 pack.
Van de Kamp's Holland Dutch Bakers, Los Angeles, enters FF field as it breaks ground for plant to process chicken pies, enchiladas, french fried northern halibut, chicken croquettes, and guaymas shrimp, to start.
July
Two companies vie to introduce semi-rigid plastic containers to supplant the waxed carton. Prices to be competitive because of use of low-priced Styrene which, when stretched thin, will not grow brittle at freezing temperatures.
August
Ward Baking Co. of New York goes national by acquiring Farm House Foods Co., processor of frozen pies, baked products and casseroles. Had already acquired Johnston Pie Company, Los Angeles.
September
End of a decade, 1959 brings production and sales records 6,565 million pounds and $2,749 million, the end of a decade which saw poundage increase 433% and product value 733%.
Soviet technicians contribute article on the at-sea freezing capability of Russia's expanded fishing fleet. In previous decade refrigerated cargo space increased eight-fold. By 1965 more than two-thirds of vessels to have mechanical refrigeration.
Tear-strip board can, aluminum laminated, is developed by Aluminum Company of America and United Shoe Machinery Corp. and test-marketed by Minute Maid. Lighter and cheaper than all-aluminum cans.
October
Automated FF distribution center, pioneered by Jerseymaid Milk Products Co., Los Angeles, gets attention of industry. Moves as many as 25,000 cases a day. Output quadruples.
Frozen margarine marketed for first time in New York City and Philadelphia by Standard Brands under the Fleischmann's brand.
Safeway--exclusive and in-depth--the story of how that super market chain bought, warehoused, distributed and sold an estimated $145 million in frozen foods the previous year.
Murry's Steaks, Inc., Washington, D.C., sells housewives on frozen meats, operating seven stores that do 90% of their volume in frozen meats.
Leo Musso increases sales 500% in three years at Quality Foods, Inc., South San Francisco. Uses newspaper campaigns, advertised brands only, never-out-of-stock policy, continuous demonstrations.
Frozen potatoes, led by French fries, skyrocket to 200 million pounds in institutional use. Surpass peas as institutional best-seller.
Merger of Minute Maid and Coca-Cola appears to be final triumph in the up and down business life of the citrus processor. Minute Maid's ad budget, already a high $3 million in 1959, expected to at least double.
November
In-store bakeries, a new development in super market service departments, seen as offering distributors way to diversify and expand, with an unlimited potential for institutional accounts.
December
Fish-shaped fish fillets appear on the market.
Onion ring processors increase from only a handful to nearly 20 in three years. Institutional market seen as the fastest growing.
1961
January
Bacteriological quality of FF much higher than that of milk or other foods found in home freezers, according to retail samples survey made by National Association of Frozen Food Packers.
Cotton's of Gloucester merges with Fishery Products, Inc., Cleveland, packers of Bluewater Seafoods.
Fred Otterbein promoted to vice president of financial administration of General Foods. He was general manager of Birds Eye for the previous seven years. In that post, he is succeeded by E. W. Kelley, previous treasurer of General Foods.
Frozen table eggs loom as super-convenient product as university and Army researchers tackle the problem, some even attempting the fried egg.
February
Plastic rigid vegetable container with a longitudinal tear strip is test marketed by Birds Eye in 10-ounce vegetable packs with transparent covers.
John M. Fox becomes executive vice president of United Fruit. He had been president of Minute Maid since its inception in 1945 as Florida Foods.
H. P. Hood & Sons markets its Southern Sun FCOJ in a spiral-wound fiber can with inner and outer layers of laminated aluminum foil.
April
Freeze drying no bonanza when processor needs an $80,000-$100,000 freeze drying chamber in addition to freezing facilities.
May
Five-company merger results in Ore-Ida Foods, Inc. Involved are Ore-Ida Potato Products, Inc., Idaho Industries, Inc., Oregon Industries Co., Oregon Frozen Foods Co., and Oregon Feeding Co.
June
Freeze-dried prepared foods marketed at retail by Armour.
Pillsbury enters frozen foods with purchase of Gibbs Goodies, Ludington, Mich., processor of apple dumpling and apple crisp frozen desserts.
Glen-Joe, Denver-based all-frozen meat store chain, opens 20th store. Open only two days a week, the stores thrive on portion-cut and blast-frozen meat in institutional sizes.
August
Joseph E. Guinane retires from General Foods Corp. after 35 years of service. He worked with Clarence Birdseye, conducted some of the earliest experiments in quick-freezing fish, and did the layout for what was possibly the first complete freezing plant.
Stew vegetables pack, containing potatoes, carrots, onions and celery, is marketed in a polyethylene bag by Stokely-Van Camp.
Van de Kamp's Holland Dutch Bakers forms a new company division for frozen foods. Robert J. Hudecek, company vice president, supervises.
September
Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, well known Italian foods processor, test markets frozen cheese and sausage pizzas in the East.
Green Giant Co. introduces 10-ounce packages of vegetables in butter sauce, packed in boilable plastic pouches. Initially: tiny peas, baby limas, corn niblets and kitchen-sliced green beans.
October
For the first time, product-by-product poundage and value of frozen vegetables, fruits, poultry, seafoods, prepared foods and concentrates are given. QFF presents this exclusive survey.
G. W. Muddiman, former chairman of Birds Eye Foods Ltd., London, dies. He had been associated with Hudson Bay Company before the War, then with Birds Eye Ltd. from 1946, watching British FF grow from nothing.
Four major baking companies push frozen doughnuts at retail: Chock Full O' Nuts, Southern Bakeries Co., Wagner Baking Corp., and Farm House Frozen Foods Co. of Conn., a subsidiary of Ward Baking Co.
November
Vegetables, in combinations and in sauces, are introduced by Birds Eye with extensive advertising and promotion. (Eight items were selected from 48 test-marketed.)
Muffin potential explored by Downyflake Foods, Morton Frozen Foods, and Gold Hill Prepared Foods, Inc., with several approaches in packing and distributing.
December
FF brokers see their institutional volume move from 34% to 46% in one year. Three-decked, air curtain cabinet brings 300% sales increase over five-week period in frozen bakery sales at Jewel Tea's Riverside, Ill., store.
Beer concentrate, produced by freezing, requires no refrigeration. Union Carbide and Phillips Petroleum are testing the waters.
1962
January
Tab-opening fiber can with metal ends, designed for packaging frozen fruits and berries, is introduced by Canco Division of American Can Co.
Frozen baby food dropped by Birds Eye. Problem in maintaining bacterial control.
Pilot restaurant, completely automated and using frozen and refrigerated foods, is tried by White Tower Corp., New York City, operator of 200 restaurants.
February
Jesse D. Jewell, founder and chairman of the board, sells his controlling interest in J. D. Jewell, Inc., poultry processor.
Freeze-dried instant coffee soon to be on market, says William L. Porter, lab director for Vacuum-Freeze-Drying division of Bethlehem Corp.
Pall cast over poultry processors at possibility that U.S. might not be able to lower tariff barriers at same time as Common Market countries, which buy 150 million pounds of frozen poultry annually.
March
Polyethylene/paper pouch for vegetables to be introduced by Western Waxide, division of Crown Zellerbach Corp.
Leo Young reports that the growth of Europe's Common Market could sharply cut U.S. frozen fish imports. Urges the rapid buildup of a modern American fishing fleet.
April
Florida packers estimate that as much as 60% of the year's 94 million gallon FCOJ pack will be sold in multi-packs of four, six or eight cans.
May
Scramble to market multi-level FF cabinets involves several manufacturers.
A 100% frozen program for Sara Lee as the company drops its fresh baked goods. Primary reason: frozen bakery products in most cases are superior to fresh.
June
Dessert with frozen dinners? Swanson, Chun King and Red L Foods test market the concept.
Florida Citrus Mutual board of directors tentatively endorses proposal for a reserve FCOJ pool as a method of stabilizing prices during crop shortages or bumper crops.
August
Jack Fisher, sales manager of Goldhill Food Corp., Brooklyn, dies. Introduced the foil-covered aluminum tray while operating own company, FrigiDinner.
September
Processed FF poundage mounts to 8,425 million pounds in 1961, valued at $3,582 million.
In Europe, Findus and Nestle form new company with capital of 16 million [pounds sterling], setting stage for Europe-wide battle with Birds Eye, the frozen food titan.
Everything served is frozen at Buitoni's new Broadway restaurant. Franchise inquiries increase.
Gorton's announces "Fresh-Lock," a new means of locking in natural fish flavors, texture, color and nutrition, reducing drip loss and weight and protein loss.
October
FF sales of the 16 leading chains estimated at $849 million for fiscal 1961-62.
Philip Rizzuto, pioneer packer and president of Southland Frozen Foods, N.Y., dies.
Freezer space in U.S. warehouses hits high of 516 million cubic feet of minus zero space, topping refrigerated space for the first time.
November
Home delivery of FCOJ in eight-ounce tetrahedronal Ultra-Pak is made by Whiting Milk Co. under Daisy Meadows brand on dairy home delivery routes in Boston area.
Swanson introduces three-course dinners nationally. Research overcame problems of simultaneous heating of five components and manufacture of special tray.
Pillsbury's FF division to begin marketing baked goods under "Pillsbury" brand label.
1963
January
El Chico Corporation, Dallas, Tex., major processor of Mexican foods, is formed by the merger of El Chico Foods, Inc., and El Chico Commissary, Inc.
"Fluidizing" belt freezing systems for IQF products are now available with capabilities 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 tons per hour from Lewis Refrigeration Co., Seattle, Wash., and over 20 are being used by processors. The prototype of this "Lewis IQF System" was first used in 1961, by Chehalis Packing Co., Chehalis, Wash., for strawberries, peas and corn.
February
Gorton's of Gloucester announces that it will merge with Red L Foods, specializing exclusively in prepared seafoods and seafood dinners.
H. J. Heinz Co. will enter the FF field: it reaches agreement to purchase Star-Kist Foods, Terminal Island, Calif., processor of prepared seafood products.
Du Pont's recently introduced Freon-502, an azeotropic mixture of its Freon-22 and Freon-115, is already in use in over 40 refrigeration systems--half for display cases, the others for FF and chemical processing.
A & P and National Tea, following Jewel Tea's lead, begin marketing their baked goods in frozen form.
Microwave restaurant opens near Times Square: Tad's freezes entrees, customer selects dish from refrigerated case, cafeteria style, and after paying cashier takes tray to his table where there is a microwave oven for him to use.
March
Frozen dinner survey conducted by Prof. George C. Cook, of New York State University, and students, finds about 23.6% of middle-income families purchase frozen dinners, to be consumed by the whole family (48.9%), children under 12 (22.5%), couples (7%) or teenagers (4.8%). Forty-nine percent were satisfied with the products, but 28% wanted bigger portions, and 55% responded favorably to the idea of dinners including soup and dessert. Forty percent first tried the product because of TV commercials. Most popular varieties: chicken (bought by 60%), turkey (40%) and beef (32.6%).
April, 1963
QFF covers two national conventions and editorializes: "When nine out of every ten people you meet in this industry ask (and with increased impatience)--when are we going to have one convention instead of two?--We think it's time to listen."
The potato pack increased 31% in 1962 over '61, to 761 million pounds. French fries accounted for about 87% of the total, and two-thirds of the total was institutional. At least 12 new frozen potato plants commenced operation in the past two years.
The National Shrimp Breaders Association, recently reorganized, institutes an information service for its members--offering detailed data on credit, shipping, marketing, technology and statistics. Executive secretary Gerald P. Smith reports that membership has expanded greatly and represents 85-90% of domestic production.
Pot pie sales declining, though the average price is down to 18 cents each. Larger sizes, different shapes are being tried by a number of packers.
May
Freezer food plans are dwindling rapidly; super market competition--and cooperation of super markets and appliance dealers--have cut into plan profits and few of them are able to offer savings to consumers. Many freezer food plans are charging prices above list for the appliances.
Canadian Frozen Potato Products Council is formed by eight processors--Carnation Co. Ltd., Fraser Valley Frosted Foods, Holland River Gardens, McCain Foods, Seeman Brothers, Singer's Food Products, Snowflake Cannery Co. (of Brunswick, Me.), and York Farms.
Birds Eye introduces eight institutional varieties of free-flowing vegetables in sauce in 2 1/2-pound cartons. The sauce is frozen in small cubes evenly blended with the partly cooked IQF vegetables. In thawing, the cubes of sauce soften but do not liquefy.
Mette Munk, Ltd., Ondense, Denmark, is exporting authentic (not cake-dough) Danish pastries to the United States. The products are being tested in a number of U.S. cities.
June
Nathaniel Barclay, co-founder and former president of Snow Crop Frozen Food Co., died at the age of 56.
QFF notes the excellent prospects for the increase of FF sales from the current $3 1/2 billion to $7 billion by 1970. (It happened in '69.)
Senator Hart compares a frozen pie from the super market with one baked for the Senate cafeteria, finds the former wanting and asks the FDA to set standards.
July
Control of Libby, McNeill & Libby is gained by two foreign companies, Banque de Paris et des Pay Bas, through its American subsidiary, Parisbas Corporation, and Fasco A.G., a member of the Michele Sindona Italian industrial complex. Libby announces ground breaking for a new vegetable plant in Wisconsin.
National Biscuit Co., New York, forms a FF division under general manager Edward H. Coale, after acquiring U.S. distribution rights for Mette Munk Danish pastries.
Kitchens of Sara Lee (Canada) Ltd. is established by the U.S. company, and Frederick W. Hayward is named vice president of Canadian operations. The new unit is located in Bramalea, Ont., and is geared initially for $5 million in baked goods sales.
Green Giant reports $10 million in sales of prepared vegetables in 1962, and predicts $18 million in '63. The company's boil-in-bag items have penetrated about 60% of the country since introduction in 1961.
Hager, Inc., Bridgeport, Conn., one of the largest freezer food plans in New England, goes into the institutional market, introducing a line of low-cost gourmet entrees designed for microwave reconstitution.
FTC learns why advertised brands of FF are more expensive: its survey of fruit, vegetable and concentrate processors (covering 1959) finds that Birds Eye and Minute Maid carry 46.2% of the advertising burden for these categories, and only six companies spend more than $1 million per year on advertising. Private label dominates, with 70% of the larger chains' total volume. About one-third of the packers surveyed were losing money.
August, 1963
Frozen Food Month (September) is recognized by the Federal government, and Acting Secretary of Agriculture Charles S. Murphy issues a statement on the growth and importance of the industry. Using the theme "Frozen Food Buy-Time," packers, retailers, brokers, distributors and transporters will conduct promotional programs to make consumers more aware of the quality, convenience and value of FF--an unprecedented, all-industry effort.
Common Market will not budge: Council of Ministers unanimously refuses to reduce duty on American poultry. "As poultry goes, so go our overall trade prospects," says Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman. The U.S. may increase tariffs on Common Market imports.
Three-mile limit called obsolete. Senator Gruening, Democrat of Alaska, proposes that the U.S. extend its territorial waters to 12 miles off shore to benefit the fishing industry.
Former Welch president dies. Edgar T. Welch, president of Welch Grape Juice Co., 1926-1935, and founder, in 1945, of Westfield Frozen Food Lockers, Inc., Westfield, N.Y. was 82 years old when he died.
QFF marks 25th anniversary and editorially calls for, among other things: more cabinet space for packers' brands, "since they create the original demand" and "provide research and advertising"; less price cutting; more scientific production on the basis of accurate market research; more premium brands; better cost information; faster reheating equipment; a campaign to increase vegetable consumption; larger retail packages....
September
Campbell Soup Company eliminates cooperative advertising with direct customers for its Swanson products, feeling that the money will do both packer and retailer more good if directed toward building the brand name among consumers. (Campbell's Pepperidge Farms division is one of the few major packers that never had a cooperative advertising program.)
Green Giant agrees to acquire all outstanding shares of Sterling Industriies, Inc., Sacramento, Calif., fruit and vegetable processor.
Formation of Sara Lee Ltd., to distribute Sara Lee cakes throughout the United Kingdom. is announced by Charles W. Lubin, president of Kitchens of Sara Lee. New company is a joint venture of the U.S. firm and J. Lyons & Co., of London.
Pet Milk to buy Downyflake consumer products business, according to joint announcement. Downyflake was a division of DCA Food Industries. Boyd F. Schenk is named president of Pet's FF divison.
Dressel Bakeries is acquired by American Bakeries Co.
Obituary: George T. Edwards, an organizer of Pratt Fresh Frozen Food Co., in 1934. He arranged for the first railroad carload shipment of frozen peas from California to New York. He sold his interest in Pratt in 1954, and was associated with a brokerage until retirement in 1960. He was 77 years old.
Moore's Seafood Products Inc. moves from Milwaukee to new site in Fort Atkinson, Wis., where it has constructed a new plant that doubles production capabilities.
October
Frick Co. introduces "Spiro-Flex," a continuous, automatic freezer which reduces conveyor friction and permits operation with a single, low-hp motor.
Harry E. DiCristina died at 70. He was president of Holly Hill Fruit Products Co., Inc., Davenport, Fla., since 1948, and its general manager from 1936 until then. It was among the first to enter the juice concentrate field.
A QFF first: per capita consumption of FF, presented in a separate retail and institutional product-by-product breakdown.
Chun King Corp. purchases Chun Wong, Inc., Compton, Calif., a leading frozen convenience food packer on the West Coast since 1948.
Booth Fisheries directors okay purchase by Consolidated Foods.
November
The Banquet Canning Company, St. Louis, will now advertise its Banquet brand nationally, according to Park Lockwood, sales manager and vice president. The company is about to introduce 18 new items, he adds. The campaign will include one of the largest schedules ever placed in Life magazine by a FF company, as well as heavy local newspaper ads and radio and TV spots.
The National Food Brokers Association's 60th annual convention, to be held Dec. 7-11 in Chicago, will (for the first time) include a special meeting on the sale and merchandising of frozen foods. The number of brokers handling FF increased 266% in the past 15 years. Of 2,050 member companies, 61.9% now sell FF, reports Watson Rogers, NFBA president, and about two-thirds of those sell to both retail and institutional markets.
Eskimo Frozen Foods, subsidiary of Associated Fisheries, major U.K. seafood processor, has been purchased by Fropax, Ltd.--making Fropax number two in the U.K., second to Birds Eye Foods, Ltd.
New retail products include french toast for the toaster from Country Best Foods and crepe suzettes from Gala Delicacies, Inc. The crepes are inserted in a polywrap, the sauce in a poly pouch. Gala also introduces entree crepes in boil-in-bags for the institutional market.
December
Birds Eye drops its cooperative ad program, doubles its marketing budget for the coming year, and discontinues dinners and meat pies. It is test marketing "Awake," a frozen "imitation" orange drink concentrate in 9-ounce cans.
Frozen tomato slices, packed eight per package at 29 cents, are being tested by Libby. Processing is made possible by liquid nitrogen "Magic Freeze" process developed by Airco. A special variety of tomato is used.
William J. Finnegan, greatest single benefactor of The Refrigeration Research Foundation, died. Finnegan was a consulting engineer who was responsible for important advances in food freezing. He made a $50,000 loan to TRRF without interest so that its Colorado Springs building could be constructed. The loan was repaid as rent until his death, whereupon the building became TRRF property.
1964
January
United Foods, of Houston, Tex., purchases Western Frozen Foods, Hammond, La., Pan Am Foods, Brownsville, Tex., and Gulf Southern Corp., Tampa, Fla.
Beatrice Food Co., Chicago, processor, is holding merger discussions with Produce Terminal Cold Storage Co., also of Chicago. If Beatrice buys the refrigerated warehousing company, it will operate as a separate division.
NFI president killed in plane crash. Lewis Goldstein, president of the National Fisheries Institute, died Dec. 8, 1963, in a jet liner crash near Elkton, Md. He was 44. He was secretary of Liberty Fish Co., Philadelphia, and vice president of the Brownsville Shrimp Exchange. A survivor of the Bataan Death March and 42 months as a P.O.W., he was elected national commander of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor in 1956.
Commercial Cold Storage, Inc., Atlanta, opens a $3-million, 4-million-cubic-foot refrigerated food center. QFF carries a special section on the company, formed four years before.
"FLoFREEZE," a fluidization freezing system recently developed by Frigoscandia, of Sweden, has already been installed by three processors in the United States and two in Canada, as well as a number in Europe.
Soy protein meat analogs are being marketed by at least two companies, Worthington Foods, Inc., Worthington, Ohio, and Brown's Frosted Foods, Inc., Philadelphia. Both offer a number of products--including chicken, beef and ham varieties.
February
Ben Hill Griffin, Inc., Frostproof, Fla., is the first processor to use the Florida Citrus Commission's "O.J." symbol, which appears on its 6- and 12-ounce cans of Golden Sip and Sun Sip concentrated orange juice.
March
The FF department can be twice as profitable as groceries, significantly more profitable than produce, according to a study by McKinsey & Company, Inc., for the Birds Eye division of General Foods. With only 5% of volume, frozens can match the total net profit of the meat department.
J. W. Greer Company, Wilmington, Mass., introduces its Jet Freezer, employing high velocity, low temperature air discharged in vertical streams above the product.
Eugene Merkert, president of Food Enterprises, Canton, Mass., brokerage, receives a special honor award for outstanding service from the Freedoms Foundation. The presentation is made by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
April
Fish stick and portion production for 1963 broke all records, with sticks rising 9% above '62, and portions jumping 20%.
Chun King purchases the assets of Oriental Commerce Ltd., Windsor, Canada, which packs Dragon brand frozen Chinese foods.
Raymond N. Tuller dies. He was cofounder and former president of Springfield Cold Storage Co., Springfield, Mass. He worked closely with Clarence Birdseye in his early experiments at Amherst College. He died March 30, of a heart attack, at 70.
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SeaPak Corporation, St. Simons Island, Ga., acquires a majority of the stock of Trade Winds Company, Thunderbolt, Ga., and offers to purchase the remainder. There are to be no changes in the latter's brand or line.
O.J. square footage down 17.1% in the cabinets, 1962-1963, although cabinet space per store rose 11.2%. Space devoted to other citrus juices also declined. Juice concentrates other than citrus gained by 4.5%, and drinks gained by 13.3%. It was estimated that civilian per capita consumption of frozen O.J. would have to rise 22% over the last five years' average in order to successfully market the expected 1967-68 orange crop.
May, 1964
Edible, transparent packaging film for FF developed by American Maize-Products Co., Roby, Ind. Food is to be wrapped in the material before freezing. The film will slowly dissolve in water and is completely digestible.
General Foods introduces freeze-dried instant coffee through its Maxwell House division. The product is called "Maxim concentrated instant coffee."
U.S. Steel and other producers attempt to penetrate the FF packaging market with tin-plated steel foil to replace aluminum.
Dressel's division of American Bakeries increases its frozen prebaked line to 24 products, redesigns its packaging and announces year-round advertising plans.
QFF exclusive nationwide frozen pizza survey: QFF presents detailed results in two parts, beginning this issue. Highlights: large pizzas most popular; thin-crust cheese is number-one seller; 40% of the packers freeze pizza exclusively; two-thirds claimed increased '63 sales; 24.5% average sales increase predicted for 1964; 83.5% of the business is retail; and an increasing number of food giants are moving in for their share of the market.
Anthony J. Pizza Food Products Corp., Calumet City, Ill., is constructing a half-million dollar plant in Chicago Heights, according to an announcement by Anthony J. Pizza, president, who founded the company in 1949
June
DCA Food Industries, Inc., New York, acquires Golden Dipt Meletio Corporation, St. Louis, Mo., breading and batter mix processor organized in 1904, according to a joint announcement by David M. Levitt, president of DCA, and John H. Meletio, president of Golden Dipt.
Mrs. Kornberg dies. She was the founder and past president of Mrs. Kornberg's Food Products Corp., North White Plains, N.Y.
Johnston Pie Co., Los Angeles, purchases Rose Royal, Inc., El Segundo, Calif., producer of frozen and fresh cheese cakes and cheese pies. Johnston Pie added nine-inch pie shells to its line.
July
Three low-calorie dinners--turkey, chicken and haddock--are being tested by the F. M. Stamper Co., St. Louis, under the "Hollywood '300' "label. Each dinner has 300 calories. "A few attempts have been made in the past to market calorie-counted frozen foods with no particular success," QFF editorializes. "Now we find a major dinner company introducing three calorie-counted dinners and at least two juice concentrate companies featuring synthetically sweetened drinks. Is the public ready...? One thing we are sure of and that is that, if not now, one day diet foods will be a standard part of the retailers' frozen food line."
Five varieties of vegetables in butter sauce, all in boilable pouches, are being readied by Seabrook Farms, N.J.
Fruit Growers Express Company, Washington, D.C., is building 630 insulated bunkerless refrigerator cars, at a total expenditure of over $11.5 million.
Mobile IQF freezer system introduced by Lewis Refrigeration Co., Woodinville, Wash., to be utilized by Green Giant at its Beaver Dam, Wis., plant.
August
FF prices are lower than they were eight years ago and much lower-than 12 years ago, while other food prices continue to climb.
Amerio Contact Plate Freezers, Inc., Cliffside Park, N.J., introduces a fully automatic loading/unloading plate freezer, capable of freezing foods at the rate of 200 retail packages per minute.
Bridgford Foods Corp., Anaheim, Calif., frozen bread dough producer, builds new, totally automated Eastern plant in Secaucus, N.J.
National Sea Products, Ltd., of Halifax, opens the world's largest ground fish processing plant in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. It has the capacity of handling 80 million pounds of seafood annually. QFF has a special section.
Gretchen Grant Kitchens, Jersey City, N.Y., hors d'oeuvres processor, purchased by The Glidden Company and becomes a division of Durkee Famous Foods.
September, 1964
Kitchens of Sara Lee, Chicago, opens Deerfield, Ill., facility--the world's largest bakery devoted exclusively to frozen product--tripling production capacity.
Pet Milk Co., St. Louis, purchases Milady Food Products, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., processor of Jewish-style foods.
Lamb-Weston, Inc., Portland, Ore., reactivates the Rocky Mountain Chemical Co's FF plant in Rupert, Idaho, for frozen crinkle-cut french fried potato production: The company recently acquired Frozen Potato Products' Grand Forks, N.D., plant from Mid-Continent Cold Storage Company of N.D.
Container Corporation of America's Sefton Can and Plastics Division develops an easy-opening fibre can for frozen citrus concentrate. It is laminated paperboard with aluminum ends and a built-in tape opening feature. The consumer simply pulls the tab.
Armour introduces special-diet entrees for hospitals.
October
Seabrook Farms founder dies. Charles Franklin Seabrook died Oct. 20, 1964, after a long illness. He was 83. He expanded from his father's 78-acre farm near Bridgeton, N.J., into a multimillion-dollar vegetable farming and freezing operation. With Clarence Birdseye, he did much of the research on freezing, and for the first three years of the industry, packed all Birdseye brand frozen vegetables and fruits in his Seabrook, N.J., plant. Seabrook processing operations were sold in 1959.
First Canadian Frozen Food Convention hosted by the Ontario FF Council, held Sept. 22-23, in Toronto.
Batter-fried fish puffs introduced by Gorton's of Gloucester, along with a seafood casserole line.
Abel's Bagels, Buffalo, N.Y., makes frozen debut with four varieties--traditional, onion, egg and rye--packed in poly bags.
New York Bagel Bakery moves from New Haven to larger plant in West Haven, Conn. Murray Lender, sales manager, describes it as the "the largest bakery in the world for bagels only."
QFF packers survey reveals that railroads are carrying 23.1% of FF, not about 15%, as previously believed.
Directory of private and controlled label frozens of leading retail food chains is published for the first time in QFF.
November
FF code. A statement of suggested trade practices for manufacturers, distributors and retailers of frozen food is approved by the board of directors of the National Association of Frozen Food Packers and related associations. Ralph Garside, national manager, business development, Birds Eye division of General Foods, played a major role in formulating the code.
Calavo Growers of California is engaged in a test marketing program with Frigid Foods, Inc., Escondido, Calif. Liquid nitrogen is used to freeze ripe avocados in half-shells, slices and chunks. Calavo personnel are introducing the product to the institutional trade initially.
December
New York State associations. The Frozen Food Association of Western New York, Buffalo, and the Central New York Frozen Food Association, Syracuse, are organized.
The August 1963 QFF is to be microfilmed for placement in Time Capsule II, to be buried on the grounds of The New York World's Fair. The issue includes the history of the FF industry from 1938, written by E. W. Williams. Time Capsule I was buried in 1938.
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The Diamond International Corporation, a holding company, announces plans to acquire Heekin Can Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, a leading manufacturer of institutional tins for frozens.
Ralph E. Garside resigns from Birds Eye to become a partner and vice president of R. W. Mitchell, Inc., Chicago, brokerage. He had been associated with the processor for 34 years.
1965
January
Freezing adds nutrition to certain foods, making more nutrients available. QFF prepares detailed comparison of frozen with canned foods, utilizing data from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the National Canners Association and the USDA's handbook, "Composition of Foods." Vegetables, fruits and juices are covered.
Valdez Cold Storage Co., Valdez, Alaska, announces plans for a $1.5 million seafood processing plant.
The annual convention of the Northwest Canners and Freezers Association, Jan. 10-12, in Portland, Ore., is attended by well over 1,500 packing and allied industry members.
Frick Company, Waynesboro, Pa., announces a new, continuous, automatic freezer, called Freez-Pak, suitable for IQF or packaged product.
Basic refrigeration text. Avi Publishing Co., Westport, Conn., brings out vol. I of Handbook of Refrigerating Engineering, by W. R. Woolrich, Dean Emeritus and Professor, College of Engineering, University of Texas.
Powdered dry ice freezer, developed by Thermlce Corp., Philadelphia, successfully applied in fruit and vegetable processing.
Mrs. Smith's Pie Company, Pottstown, Pa., will construct additional production facilities, doubling capacity.
Van de Kamp's Frozen Food Division announces a $1 -million addition, to double baked goods production capacity.
Perky Pies, a division of Jaz-Zee Products, Inc., Oakland, Calif., announces a line of fruit, beef, tuna and chicken turnovers.
February
FF grew at almost twice the rate of the Gross National Product in the past year--11%, compared to 6.7%. According to QFF, present FF sales are about $4.4 billion and poundage is over 9 billion. Retail sales accounted for $3 billion; institutional, for $1.4 billion. Since 1963, the number of U.S. FF packers increased by almost 300, to 1,463. "We now foresee a curtailment of this growth into fewer and larger units. The era of consolidation has set in."
Appearance of frozen poultry outranks price, three-to-one, as a determining factor in purchase, according to an extensive consumer survey by Professor George C. Cook of New York State University and a team of students. About 49% of consumers buy some form of frozen poultry, most often turkey, most often whole. Whole frozen chicken buying is also stronger than buying of parts. There is a market for deboned frozen poultry at a higher price.
French snails in seasoned parsley butter sauce are packed in six-ounce retail packages by S-Car-Go, Inc., Ramsey, N.J.
James Jefferson Rucker Bristow, inventor of citrus concentrating processes, died Jan. 28, at 74. He founded the Dunedin, Fla., citrus processing plant.
Chef Pierre Inc., dessert processor, relocates, from Elk Rapids to Traverse City, Mich., and drops "Foods" from its former name, Chef Pierre Foods Inc.
March
Last separate convention, the 24th annual event sponsored by the National Association of Frozen Food Packers, was held March 1-3, in San Francisco. After 22 years of service, Lawrence S. Martin resigns his duties as executive vice president. He is succeeded by Thomas B. House.
The Freezer Box Division of Annapolis Yacht Yards, Inc., Annapolis, Md., is acquired by Evans Products Co., Plymouth, Mich.
Campbell Soup announced plans for construction of a multi-million-dollar plant near Sumter, S.C., for Swanson TV Dinners and poultry products.
May, 1965
Winter Garden Freezer Co., Inc., Bells, Tenn., fruit and vegetable processor, embarks on a $1.4 million expansion program, according to an announcement by J. O. Tankersley, president.
Morton Frozen Foods begins construction of a plant in Russellville, Ark., primarily for poultry products.
Potato processors merge. Snow Flake Canning Co., Corinna, Me., and Lamb-Weston, Portland, Ore., sign merger agreement. Snow Flake will operate as a subsidiary.
Singleton Packing Corp., Tampa, Fla., has opened the first U.S. shrimp plant designed for liquid nitrogen freezing.
June
"The Japanese have a word for it--'tempura'--and in the near future the frozen prepared food industry will see how much of a market exists for deep-fry foods which sport a light, fluffy batter ..."--Editorial.
H. J. Heinz Company is negotiating for the acquisition of Ore-Ida Foods, Inc., Ontario, Ore.
Colonial Beef Co., Philadelphia, opens a $1.5-million meat processing plant in that city's new Food Distribution Center.
July
Tasti-Fries, a six-sided frozen french fried potato product, is introduced by the Birds Eye division of General Foods.
F. G. Lamb & Co., Weston, Ore., merges into Lamb-Weston, Inc., according to F. Gilbert Lamb, president of Lamb-Weston. F. G. Lamb & Co. began freezing strawberries in 1939, vegetables in 1942.
August
Lubin retires. Charles W. Lubin, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Kitchens of Sara Lee, Deerfield, Ill., retires from that firm after 15 years of service. He developed the technique of baking cakes in aluminum foil pans, freezing and shipping them in the same container.
Kenneth J. Sartori elected president of American Consumer Industries, Inc., New York, the country's largest owner and operator of cold storage warehouses.
Glass-door retail cabinet drawbacks are "myths," QFF concludes, and emphasizes their positive aspects in installations in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Celentano Brothers, Newark, N.J. Italian specialties processor, runs a summer promotion for its unusual thick-crust pizza, using TV and radio commericals.
Modern Maid Food Products, Inc., Jamaica, N.Y., announces perfection of a method of maintaining complete leavening stability in its new tempura batter mix, "Our technologists engaged in extensive experimentation with existing battering equipment in cooperation with Sam Stein Associates."
"The U.S. fishing industry is in such dire extremity that the potential of the seas for supplying nourishing, economical food for our population may never be realized...."--Editorial.
September
Twenty per cent gain, greatest in FF history, boosts volume to $5.25 billion.--State of the Industry.
Campbell Soup introduces first three-course frozen seafood dinner, Swanson "Mixed Seafood Grill" in five-compartment tray.
McCain Foods Ltd., Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada, acquires the entire share capital of Caterpac Ltd., London, England, one of the largest private importers of FF in Great Britain. It distributes Caterpac brand products to the institutional market.
Edward A. Taylor becomes general manager of the Florida Citrus Commission, succeeding Homer E. Hooks, who resigns after eight years in the post.
Max A. Ries, co-founder of Honor Brand Frosted Foods, died Aug. 1, following a long illness. He was 59. Honor Brand, one of the industry's first, was later purchased by Stokely-Van Camp.
October
Largest issue of any magazine ever in the history of publishing up to that time--542 pages. Over half of the pages are devoted to editorial material. Each copy weighs over three pounds. The magazine includes the most extensive data ever assembled on the industry. Largest ad in the issue is a 10-page fold-out in four colors for Mrs. Smith's Pie Co. It is believed to be the largest ever carried by any food trade publication.
Sam Stein Associates, Inc., Sandusky, Ohio, will make the line of Fry-O-Matic continuous fryers invented by Wood B. Hedgepeth and formerly manufactured by Jabez Burns & Sons, Inc., and its successor, Blaw-Knox Co., Inc. The entire line has been redesigned. Stein tempura applicator is announced.
December
Florida-Citrus Commission upgrades O.J. quality. Use of washed pulp solids for 6-, 12- and 32-ounce sizes is prohibited. The increase in brix (from 41.8[degrees] to 44.8[degrees]) means there will be about 7% more orange solids.
Green Giant will buy Dulany Foods, Inc.
"Bake-in-bag" bread introduced by Pet. Special baking bags made of a nylon film are provided for both proofing and baking the raw bread dough.
Pet Milk Co., is reportedly buying Hussmann Refrigeration, Chicago. Pet recently acquired Downyflake, Milady's and Frosted Fruit Products.
1966
January
Molded pulp disposable pie baking plates are developed by Keyes Fibre Co., New York. The "Bak-O-Ware" pie plate bakes complete pies up to 15% faster than metal can. Evenly distributed heat permits uniform bottom browning.
February
Frozen foods, from 1955 to 1965, grow at 3.6 times the rate of United States' Gross National Product.
March
E. W. Williams Publications, Inc., publisher of Quick Frozen Foods, joins Cahners Publishing Co., Boston. Will operate as a division of Cahners.
Green Giant and Birds Eye test market fruit in a quick-thawing pouch. The bags are placed unopened in warm water for 10-15 minutes.
CandyGram, Inc., in association with Western Union, sees frozen candy sales quadruple during first year of operation. Offers one- and two-pound boxes by mail.
Three varieties of frozen pancake batter are packed in one-pint containers by International Industries, Inc., North Hollywood, Calif.
April, 1966
Lamb-Weston custom builds and equips traveling test kitchen to demonstrate its frozen potato products to restaurants throughout the country. Includes freezer, high output two-basket deep fryer, oven, range, sink, portion-control scale, heat lamps, lounge area, and is completely air conditioned.
May
F. M. Stamper Co., St. Louis, owner of Banquet Canning Co., buys Bright Foods, Inc., Turlock, Calif.
Wallace C. Blankinship becomes vice president-FF systems development for Stouffer's frozen prepared foods division. James M. Biggar succeeds him as vice president and general manager of the division
Birds Eye markets 18 vegetables ready to serve five minutes after brought to a boil.
Container Corp. of America produces frozen juice cans with spray coatings of DuPont "Elvax" vinyl resins in place of interior layer of aluminum foil; first application of hot melts in rigid containers.
Dr. "Dutch" Diehl, pioneer frozen food researcher, retires from Trans-American Refrigeration Services.
June
Campbell produces its first "International Style Dinners" under Swanson label--German, Italian, Mexican and Chinese.
Hyman Epstein dies, a pioneer processor of Jewish-style frozen foods and one of the best-known figures in the industry.
USDA researchers discover that 20% of frozen retail items cost slightly less than their ingredients at retail. Percentage possibly greater because of yield-after-cooking results. Frozen yields ranged from 88 to 100% of initial weight, as compared to 65 to 95% for home-prepared counterparts.
July
Container Corp. of America devises laminated paperboard body with metal ends for FCOJ containers.
Merger of Global Frozen Foods and Snow Kist produces what may be world's largest 100% independently operated retail FF distributor.
Lamb-Weston purchases control of Brown and Kelly, Inc., Quincy, Wash., potato processor.
September
Jerre Pearson is named president and chief executive officer of Seeman Brothers, Inc., and its subsidiary, Seabrook Farms Co. Inc., Carlstadt, N.J.
Hanscom Brothers, Inc., of Philadelphia, markets in New York 10-ounce packages of iced yellow cup cakes and French crumb cup cakes, individually paper-cupped after baking.
Crunchier breading arrives as Gorton's introduces five items--fried shrimp, fish sticks, fried clams, fish fillets and fried scallops--with a crunchy recipe combination of tempura puff batters and breading.
SeaPak Corp., St. Simons Island, Ga., soon to be acquired by W. R. Grace & Co., which proposes one common share for each 2.262 of SeaPak's 481,000 common shares.
October
Global Frozen Foods, Inc., easily absorbs Snow Kist business by use of "Code-a-Phone," automatic answering device that takes orders electronically, bypassing switchboard.
November
All-time record of $5.77 million set in 1965 as value of FF produced or marketed in U.S., a 9.8% increase over 1964.
Nestle of Toronto markets its own freeze-dried coffee, Taster's Choice, in Canada.
Frozen cream type pies, produced under good sanitation conditions, found by FDA study to have an E. coli MPN less than three per gram (none, by their method) or sterile.
December
R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company acquires Chun King for $63 million. Chun King's stock to be held by new subsidiary, R. J. Reynolds Foods, Inc., with Chun King founder Jeno F. Paulucci as chairman.
1967
January
Jeno F. Paulucci, president and chairman of the board of Northland Foods, Inc., Duluth, Minn., announced expansion of the company into the FF field, with establishment of research center for dessert and Italian foods.
H. P. Hood & Sons completes 100% ownership of Roman Products Corporation, South Hackensack, N.J., largest 100% Italian FF company in U.S.
First entry into pot pie field made by Stouffer's frozen prepared foods division, Cleveland. Introduces beef, chicken and turkey pies in 10-ounce portions.
April
R. J. Reynolds Foods, Inc., established, with initial focus on production of frozen and canned foods, including snacks, desserts and beverages Composed of Chun King Corp.; the Grocery Products division of Penick & Ford, Ltd.; College Inn Products; and Filler Products, Inc.
Frozen corn-on-the-cob, in poly bags, four full ears to the bag, is test marketed in Philadelphia by Green Giant.
De luxe frozen vegetables introduced by Birds Eye. Five different products receive a distinctive label. The assortment considered a first in frozen vegetables.
May
Frozen fruit spreads, actually raw fruit preserves, are introduced in nine-ounce plastic tubs by Dean Foods Co., Franklin Park, Ill. Said to retain flavor of fresh fruit.
July
Coffee whitener in 1/2-ounce single-serving portion' plastic cups offered to institutional trade by Rich.
August
Paul I. Corddry appointed general manager of Ore-Ida Foods, Inc., Ontario, Ore. Corddry had served as general manager of product marketing for parent company, Heinz.
Frozen nondairy topping. Cool Whip, begins national distribution under Birds Eye label.
September
Irrigation in eastern Washington State almost doubles acreage under cultivation since 1963. Potato processing production increases 385% in two years; area may have potential to produce 50% or more of the United States processed potatoes.
Fish and seafood industry products pass $1 billion mark in 1966, a total worth of $1,029,402,101. Total poundage was 971,088,647.
October
Green Giant agrees to sell a subsidiary, Dulany Foods, Inc., Fruitland, Md., to United Foods, Inc., Houston.
FDA approves Du Pont's use of dichlorodifluoromethane (Freon freezant) for the freezing of foods by direct contact.
November
Frozen corn-on-the-cob production increases 400% in three years, retail gains 268%. Growth predicted for over 20 years.
James A. Schlindwein appointed assistant to the vice president, sales and marketing, for Hershey Chocolate Corporation. He had been vice president of a similar division at Sara Lee.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Minute Maid metamorphosis. Coca-Cola Company amalgamates Minute Maid Company and Duncan Foods to form the Coca-Cola Company Foods Division, headquartered in Houston, with J. Lucian Smith as chief executive officer.
Carl E. Seabergh, who opened the world's first all-frozen-food store, in 1940, in White Plains, N.Y., dies. He also designed and built to his own specifications the first open-top FF cabinet.
With QFF supplying the data and DuPont the computer, computer estimates are secured for the first time of FF growth in next 10 years by pounds, dollars and per capita consumption. All frozens are expected to increase 148% in dollar value, with prepared foods up 355%.
Seafood processors increased in number by 774% in past 20 years, now making up 44.9% of all FF processors.
Rosarita Foods, Mesa, Ariz., a leading processor of Mexican foods, predicts Mexican style will become the country's number one nationality food by 1975.
December
James L. Ferguson is recommended to succeed George M. Perry as general manager of the Birds Eye FF division. Ferguson was marketing manager of the Jell-O division.
Jeno's, Inc., is the new name of Northland Foods, Inc., Duluth, Minn., according to owner and board chairman Jeno F. Paulucci.
1968
January
Full-sized home freezers owned by almost one out of every three American families; percentage of households so equipped doubled in last 10 years. Including refrigerators with FF compartments, perhaps 90% of U.S. families can store FF for a week or more.
Findus LTD., a subsidiary of the Nestle Co., second largest in European FF volume, and Fropax Ltd. merge into company with larger, stronger, more economic base for expansion in United Kingdom. A challenge for Birds Eye Foods Ltd.
James A. Schlindwein named president and chief executive officer of Kitchens of Sara Lee.
James Biggar is named president of the Stouffer Foods division. Biggar was vice president and general manager of the frozen prepared foods division.
February
M. Crawford Pollock appointed a consultant to the Weyerhaeuser Paperboard Packaging division, Chicago. Pollock, formerly a senior vice president and a director at Green Giant, originated the merchandising concepts which popularized frozen dinners, meat and fruit pies, poultry and prepared vegetables.
Frozen rice dishes in boil-in-bag market tested in five varieties by Green Giant.
March
The Freezing Preservation of Foods published in four volumes by AVI publishing company; the definitive and indispendable work on the field virtually a do-it-yourself encyclopedia. Edited by Donald K. Tressler.
May, 1968
Thirteen-floor FF warehouse, with vertical-horizontal elevators, is constructed by the Stouffer Foods Division of Litton Industries in Solon, Ohio.
Robert K. Pedersen is elected president and chief executive officer of Ore-Ida Foods, Inc.
First roll-on roll-off all-containerized ship, operated by Transamerican Trailer Transport, Inc., makes maiden voyage. With capacity of 260 containers, 24% are refrigerated, each with capacity of 2,091 cubic feet.
ITT reportedly will acquire Continental Baking for $281 million.
Weight Watchers enters FF with four frozen fish dinners developed especially for the weight-conscious public. Meat and poultry dinners are expected to follow.
Simulated meats produced from spun soybean protein could pose economic threat to fresh meat, a threat which could be blunted by the centralized cutting and freezing of heavy cuts of meat.
July, 1968
Computerized warehouse management methods, used by National Cold Storage Co., maintain first-in-first-out principle, provide 100% inventory computers. National's success may speed industry conversion to computerization.
August
30th anniversary Issue. The 360th consecutive issue of QFF, never having missed a number, now serving an industry of 1,800 processors doing $5 billion a year. A 70,000-word illustrated history complete in the issue tells the fabulous story.
Imitation frozen milk test-marketed under the brand of Veeva-Rich by Rich Products. Product is a three-to-one concentrate with a coconut oil base that reconstitutes to half a gallon and sells for 35 cents. Has the nutritional value of real milk.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
John Inglis names O. A. (Ole) Cerutti general sales manager, after 18 years with the company.
Donald K. Tressler, Ph. D., who helped develop the freezing process, is named 1968 recipient of the Nicolas Appert Award by The Institute of Food Technologists, as one of the world's leading food technologists.
Gorton's approves merger with General Mills, after declaring a profit of $1.5 million for fiscal year ended March 31, 1968.
Catfish farms are becoming big business as 35 million pounds a year are raised in ponds, half of it sold in frozen form.
Irradiated meats. Approval withdrawn to process them by the FDA.
September
Bernan Food Corp., Newark, N.J., processor of frozen kosher specialties, named Michael Midler president.
Frozen puddings under the Cool 'n Creamy name market-tested by Birds Eye.
October
Screw compressors introduced to the United States by Howden. Great savings in the initial installation at Prossers Packers, Inc., Prosser, Wash. by Lewis Refrigeration.
United Foods sells Watsonville, Calif., vegetable processing plant to Green Giant for $4.9 million. It may be largest of its type in the world.
Thaw pack frozen retail fruits growing fast. Products are packed in plastic bags and thaw out in 15 minutes ir room temperature water. They overcame long-thawing problem which has for years seriously hurt progress of frozen fruits at retail.
Fish-and-chips restaurants exploding across the country, using a great deal of frozen product.
November
Shrimp farming begun by Akima International Corp. in Panama City, Fla.
New England Fish Company celebrates 100th anniversary by opening new headquarters in Seattle Now among top five in fish and seafood sales.
December
Morton Frozen Food sales reach $115 million, George Vail reveals; goal is $200 million.
Amerio Refrigeration, long an integral part of the frozen food industry with its plate freezers, was acquired by St. Regis Paper Co.
International Vegetables with sauce launched by Birds Eye. Initial varieties include Bavarian, Danish, Mexican and Japanese.
Bridgford Foods Corp., Anaheim, purchases Frozen-Rite Foods, Dallas, after the death of its founder Irving Comroe. This will put Bridgford in the frozen bread dough business.
1969
January
The Freon freezer. A combination of product movement through liquid Freon at a temperature of 25 degrees below zero F is expected to open up markets for this freezer with high-ticket products like shrimp. An FDA approval has already been obtained and three major equipment firms have been franchised to sell the freezer.
Jeno Paulucci resigns as board chairman of Reynolds Foods. He says he would like to spend more time on the development of his own enterprises.
February
H. C. Boerner, founder of H. C. Boerner Co., Great Neck, N.Y., one of the nation's largest and most respected frozen food brokerages, died January 19, 1969, at the age of 53, of a stroke. New president of the firm is Ned Maher.
J. D. Jewell, who built the second largest frozen chicken operation in the United States during the fifties, retired Dec. 31, 1968. He pioneered a 100% integrated operation.
March
Frozen concentrated milk in retail-sized cans tested by Sealtest in Milwaukee. Reconstitutes two-to-one. The concentrate can also be used undiluted as cream. Priced higher than fluid milk.
Tex-Mex Cold Storage, Brownsville, Tex., begins operations. Some $2 million was spent on one of the largest low-temperature facilities in its area.
April
William W. Cease dies. One of the earliest pioneers in the introduction of frozen fruit pies, frozen dough products and meat pies, Cease died March 25, 1969, at Dunkirk, N.Y.
Boyd F. Schenk is the new president of Pet, Inc. He has previously been president of the frozen food division.
Seeman Bros., parent company of Seabrook Farms, will purchase Oceans of the World Eastern, Inc., New York, headed by Murry Berger--prime outlet for the Carnation frozen seafood brand.
Retail frozen omelets by Spread Eagle Farms, Country Market Foods Co., and others in a number of varieties.
Vitamin-enriched bagels introduced by Lender's.
Ken J. Sartori of U.S. Cold Storage receives a citation from QUICK FROZEN FOODS for his contributions to the frozen food industry at the annual convention of the warehouse association.
May
Three-course dinner broadens base of dinner market by greatly increased consumption among husbands and teenagers, according to a survey of 1,000 families by New York Agricultural and Technical College in cooperation with QFF.
Retail pies in institutional sizes up to 48-ounces and 10-inches in diameter provide new impetus to moribund frozen fruit pie industry.
Frozen milk. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin lick problems of separation of frozen milk after thawing and change of flavor. They see no barrier to commercial frozen product.
New York Schools. Conversion underway to switch 450 grade schools in five years to 100% frozen lunches.
June
Poly bag vegetables almost 50% of retail poundage of category exclusive of potatoes.
Edwin F. Huddleson dies at 81. He was the man who took Stokely into frozen foods via Honor Brand. He credited QFF with convincing him that the frozen line should be extended to retail products.
Thorsteinn Gislason of Coldwater Seafood is elected president of the 120-member American Seafood Distributors Association, the organization that defeated import quotas on ground-fish fillets and led to a reduction of duties on fish blocks, ensuring a constant source of supply of raw materials to the industry.
Breaded chicken pioneer M. E. Grant, of Indianapolis, dies. He experimented with breaded, precooked chicken before World War II, held a trademark on fried chicken and developed the first chicken patties.
Cabinet defrost cycle eliminated in revolutionary dry-air design by John F. Mercer of Globe, Ariz., and a patent taken on it.
Taco franchise restaurants boom in the Southwest, with products most frequently supplied in frozen form.
July, 1969
Pollock is becoming the main target of fishermen in the Atlantic as supplies of haddock dwindle. Boats are being converted for that fish.
Gorton's of Gloucester is one of first to install a Freon freezing system for breaded shrimp.
August
Sidney J. Weinberg, famed Wall Street broker with Goldman, Sachs & Company, who negotiated the sale of Clarence Birdseye's company and freezing patents to Postum (General Foods) for $22 million, died July 23, 1989, at the age of 77. He had been offered 75% interest for $12 million, but threw in another $10 million for the remaining 25%.
Frozen yogurt on a stick introduced by Dannon.
Breakfasts tested by Swanson, including pancakes with sausage patties; scrambled eggs with sausage and country style fried potatoes; and French toast with sausage patties.
Willis Shaw Frozen Express, a leading transporter' of frozen foods, acquired by Del Monte.
October
Richard Funk succeeds Harry K. Schauffler as executive director of The National Frozen Foods Association on Dec. 1, 1969, and will headquarter in Hershey, Pa.
Spacemen to be supplied with frozen meals for the flight of Apollo 12, with a specially designed frozen food container and oven.
McCain Foods, largest frozen food processor in Canada, to enter U.S. market with institutional potatoes, selling East of the Mississippi.
Sara Lee will spend $10 million to expand Deerfield plant so it can produce products other than baked goods.
Totino's pizza, now produced on the West Coast by Ventura Coastal Corporation, has penetrated 75% of the market. Production began there in 1968.
Charles Henderson dies. He moved Mrs. Smith's Pies into frozen, functioning as sales manager from 1956 to 1966, when he retired. He processed his own version of frozen orange concentrate at Florida Frozen Foods, Haines City, Fla., from 1944 to 1947, though it was not the type that later became popular.
England. Imperial Tobacco obtains 9% of the British frozen food market through its acquisition of Ross and Smedley. A price of $115 million was paid for the Ross Group. The purchase also includes a franchise for Young's shellfish as well as the Aylesbury brand. Imperial itself does collectively about $2.5 billion annually.
November
Sysco Corporation formed through the merger of nine major frozen food distributors: Global, Plantation, Frostpack, Houston's Food Service, Texas Wholesale, Thomas, Wicker, Justrite and Zero.
RCA buys Banquet for $140 million in shares. General Mills had previously negotiated for Banquet, but had not gotten the family-owned F. M. Stamper Company, which was estimated to be doing between $150 and $175 million annually, most of it in frozen prepared foods.
Soy extender for frozen hamburger patties becoming more widespread, lowering the cost without injuring nutrition.
December
Frozen coffee concentrate: The Coca-Cola Company has produced a product reconstituting at 17-to-one, complete with a dispenser for the institutional trade. Flavor is superb. Onion rings becoming vast business. Moore's Seafood Products, Fort Atkinson, Wis., says it may have to change its name because the onion rings outsell all the seafoods combined.
Van de Kamp's markets 11 frozen bakery items.
1970
January
Worthington Foods, a company specializing in vegetarian meats in frozen form, has been acquired by Miles Laboratories.
Dolphin Foods, a prominent Cleveland-based frozen fish and seafood processor, purchased by Durkee.
Elm Tree Baking, producer of frozen ready-to-bake products, bought by Rich Products.
February
Frozen food buyers. A complete day in the life of a major retail frozen food buyer was recorded on tape and the interviews published in what is the only feature of its type ever done. There was no censorship of the copy by any of the participants.
Sara Lee enters the frozen fruit pie market with double-crust pies.
Containerized shipping of frozen foods to Puerto Rico and the Caribbean gaining volume, with three shipping firms from the greater New York Area alone shipping 100 containers a week.
March
American Frozen Food Institute is the new name of the 28-year-old National Association of Frozen Food Packers. It was felt that the old name was too narrow in scope to represent the full activity of the association.
Sam Martin and Saul Beck promoted to associate publisher and national advertising manager of QUICK FROZEN FOODS properties, March 1, 1970.
Frozen bacon, called Baconex, fully cooked, requires only a few seconds of heating prior to serving.
April
Shenandoah Valley Produce Co. lost its founder, Thomas M. Ferrara, who died April 10, 1970. Starting as a poultry distributor, he built one of the nation's frozen poultry companies.
Charles Rizzuto was named president of Southland Frozen Foods, one of the major producers of frozen vegetables in the East. He had a background of 19 years with the company.
May
Refrigeration Engineering Corporation (RECO), San Antonio, Tex., introduces a new concept in freezers, a continuous stainless steel grid, chain driven, making it a flexible table to convey products. Product transfer is automatic and the system will take fresh, precooked, trayed, bagged or boxed product.
Freezer Queen, major Buffalo-based frozen meat and prepared foods company, merges into the National Biscuit Company.
John Inglis Frozen Foods Co., Modesto, Calif., purchased by United Foods. Inglis was established in 1945 and became one of the nation's leading private label fruit and vegetable packers.
June
Salmonellae cannot live in frozen vegetable processing lines, experiments at Cornell University attest. Even introducing large bodies of them resulted in no trace at the end of the processing line.
August
Paul Jacobs leaves Gorton's for vice presidency at Hood. While with Gorton's he was responsible for that firm's acquisition of Florida Frozen Foods, Miami, shrimp processors; Blue Water Seafoods, Cleveland, portion-control fish; Red-L Foods, Great Neck, N.Y., prepared seafoods; Fulham Brothers, Boston, Mass., retail fish; Freeborn Farms, Monroe, Conn., hors d'oeuvres; and Bayou Foods, Mobile, Ala., seafood specialties.
Snake River Trout Co., Buhl, Ida., run by Robert Erkins, purchased by the Inmont Corp., New York.
September
Prices. Comparison of frozen food prices of 1970 with those of 10 years earlier show them to be inflation-resistant--in fact hardly changed. Fruit pies, lemonade, french fried potatoes, meat pies, and pound cake were actually lower in price.
Libbyland Adventure Dinners, stressing foods that children prefer, such as hot dogs, meat balls and fried chicken, with vegetables and dessert are marketed. Each dinner has a full-color, die-cut,