Around 1915, this fur trader witnessed Canadian Eskimos spread their freshly caught fish on the frozen snow, then store the frozen fish for months before thawing and cooking them. This gave him the idea for a frozen-food business which made his name a hou

While working as a naturalist and fur trader in Labrador, Canada, between 1912 and 1915, an American inventor had a crucial insight. He observed how the local Inuit people used the frigid arctic air, with temperatures hitting -40°F, to almost instantly freeze their freshly caught fish. He was amazed that when the fish were thawed and cooked months later, they tasted remarkably fresh, unlike the mushy, slow-frozen (Review) foods he was used to back home.

This observation led him to realize that the speed of freezing was the key. The traditional slow-freezing methods of the time created large ice crystals that punctured the food's cell walls, ruining its texture and flavor. The Inuit's natural "flash-freezing" method, however, created tiny micro-crystals that left the cellular structure intact. This man, Clarence Birdseye, returned to the United States determined to replicate this natural process mechanically.

After years of experimentation, he perfected a "quick-freeze" machine. He founded a company to sell frozen fish fillets and later expanded to vegetables, fruits, and meats. Although it took time for grocers to install freezers and for consumers to trust the new product, his innovation eventually launched the multi-billion dollar frozen food industry. His company was eventually sold and his name became the iconic Birds Eye brand, forever changing how the world eats.