Freezing Technology

1.1.1.1. Historical developments

1.1.1.1. Historical developments in low temperature preservation of foods

In olden days, in places which were covered with snow or ice, the flesh of hunted animals and fish were covered with ice thereby fish was frozen and quality is preserved. However, freezing of fish/ foods by artificial methods is a recent development.

Towards the end of 19^th century compressors were developed and because of this machine, novel methods of fish freezing were developed. First patent on freezing of fish using cold air was given to V.Benzamine of England in 1842. In the year 1861, similar patent was awarded to E. Piper of U.S.A. Who used salt ice mixture to freeze food. Russians were pioneers in freezing fish by using machines. They used compressors on board the fishing vessel to freeze fish and also built a freezing plant (factory) in a place called Astrakhan. In 1898 immersion freezing system was developed for freezing fish. Nikhoidahl, a scientist from Norway developed spray freezing method. In 1925, a technician named Cook developed contact plate freezer which was further improved by Karensbirdseye in 1929. Similarly methods of freezing and packing it in consumer packs were developed subsequently.