Frozen Foods, Past and Present
TV Dinners. What comes to mind? For most, a TV dinner is an aluminum compartment plate covered with foil, usually turkey and mashed potatoes. Maybe thoughts of convenience, a moderately healthy meal, and old fashioned. The original TV dinners have been around for 50 years! In 1954, C.A. Swanson & Sons introduced the first TV dinner – it was roast turkey with stuffing and gravy, sweet potatoes and peas. It sold for 98 cents and came in an aluminum tray, inspired by trays used on airlines. Supposedly, executive Gerald Thomas came up with the idea when the company had a surplus of leftover turkey from Thanksgiving.
The retail frozen food phenomenon, however, is a result of the work of Clarence Birdseye. Beginning in 1912, he spent five years as a fur trader in the Labrador waters of Newfoundland, Canada and noticed that foods were easily preserved in the arctic and observed how the Eskimos were able to quickly freeze their foods. In 1923, he was able to perfect a system of packaging fresh food in a frozen form. Birdseye was concerned with freezing the food rapidly so that there would be no damage to its cellular structure and packaging the food so it could be sold directly to the consumer. Birds Eye frozen foods were introduced to the market in 1930.
Frozen Foods
Today frozen foods continue to be big business, a $67 billion dollar business according to the American Frozen Food Industry trends information for 2002. Two-thirds of annual sales are for the food service industry including restaurants, cafeterias, hospitals and schools. In addition to eating frozen foods from these establishments, U.S. consumers purchase billions of dollars in frozen foods at the retail level, mainly at supermarkets. Frozen dinners and entrees are the most popular while frozen meats and seafood are the fastest growing category. Results from a survey conducted by the NPD Group show that Americans eat some type of frozen meal 6 times per month.
Regular frozen foods such as fruits, vegetables, and meats retain nutrients well because of flash freezing. Pre-cooked meats are a very popular choice for fast and easy meals and also retain nutrients well.
Frozen Entrees
From traditional TV dinners to pizza rolls, this type of frozen food is pre-cooked and processed before it is frozen. Just like purchasing a “meal helper” type box with a seasoning packet or sauce, ingredients are added as part of the recipe. These added ingredients are the ones that you want to examine carefully. As with other convenience foods, pre-cooked frozen meals may often contain additives, preservatives, emulsifiers, anti-caking agents, etc…
Too Much and Too Little
Just because a food is “baked in your own oven” does not mean it is the same as homemade. Despite the recent domination of frozen dinners targeting health conscious consumers, many frozen meals give you too much of some not-so-healthy ingredients, especially fat and sodium. An unsuspecting pot-pie is a great example. It is small, usually inexpensive, something “grandma” might make and easy to heat in the oven. Look out when you read the label though! A 7-ounce chicken pot-pie contains 380 calories, 22 grams of fat (that is 52% of calories from fat!!) and 737 mg of sodium. A quick glance at a 5-ounce frozen beef and bean burrito doesn’t look much better – it’s 370 calories, 16 grams of fat (39% calories from fat) and 830 mg of sodium.
Certain lines of frozen dinners are often considered higher quality and include many restaurant-branded items. The perceived higher quality, and perhaps better taste is usually because these products are loaded with fat, calories and salt – just like restaurant foods!
For the health conscious consumer, frozen dinners can be attractive for ease of preparation, pre-determined portions sizes and variety. Because of the popularity of this market segment you can find several more specialized brands that offer organic frozen meals, reduced fat and sodium, and now more than ever carbohydrate-conscious meals. Remember, there is still processing involved in a final cooked recipe, however the choices have greatly improved over the years. Unlike the pot-pies offering “too much” some of the healthier options may be “too little” for most meal plans if eaten alone.
