Frozen food has quickly gained popularity among consumers looking for new and healthy ingredients due to the wide selection of frozen meals, snacks, and vegetables on the market today.

The frozen food industry boasts many advantages yet remains fiercely competitive. Success lies in being innovative.

Origins

Food freezing has long fascinated history’s great minds. Sir Francis Bacon first experimented with this idea by trying to freeze a chicken in 1626 (it died), while in Scotland, around 1750, the first successful refrigerator was developed.

Clarence Birdseye was instrumental in pioneering frozen foods through innovations in packaging, freezer technology and food preparation techniques. While working in Labrador – an arctic province located east of Canada that gets very cold – he observed how Inuit people preserved fish by quickly freezing it on ice. Noticing how when thawing took place afterwards, they didn’t become soggy, Birdseye began experimenting with fast freezing techniques back home and fast-froze fast fish using fast freezing techniques he learned there.

By the 1930s, he had already established a line of frozen vegetables and fish products available for sale on the market. By the 1960s’ end, frozen ready meals experienced rapid expansion thanks to women entering the workforce in greater numbers. By the 1990s’ end, more sophisticated value-added products like pizza, oven chips, seafood and desserts entered the marketplace, along with increasing awareness among consumers regarding overeating, additives, calories, etc.

Trends

Frozen food meets the needs of busy consumers who experience cooking fatigue. Frozen meals allow consumers to avoid the stress and hassle associated with creating multiple meals per day, offering ready-to-assemble, gourmet ingredients, sauces, and entrees as part of an easy solution.

Freezer foods provide consumers with access to various global flavours without the need for travel. Consumers increasingly desire food products that allow them to experience other cultures without making multiple journeys abroad.

Frozen foods offer another attractive choice for health-conscious consumers as they are frozen at the peak of freshness to preserve nutritional value, driving growth in organic, gluten-free, low-carb and high-protein options as well as meeting demand for vegan/vegetarian or flexitarian offerings.

Convenience

Frozen foods offer an economical, time-saving and hassle-free option for fresh ingredients. Their ease of preparation makes them great time savers, enabling shoppers to avoid grocery store trips while spending more time with family and friends. Furthermore, frozen food helps reduce food waste; studies have revealed that up to 40% of produce waste occurs before it ever reaches consumers due to spoilage on its way from farms or processing facilities to homes.

Frozen foods make an excellent option for busy lifestyles because they require little preparation time – this is particularly true of frozen meals from several manufacturers who have created numerous ready-made frozen meal offerings, both family-sized and health-conscious varieties.

Frozen food is convenient to store in freezers and microwaves. Furthermore, they’re widely available at grocery stores and supermarkets, making frozen foods even more accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Advantage Solutions research, 83% of shoppers polled plan on increasing their frozen product purchases this year as opposed to last. Pizza led the list of favourite frozen items, followed by single-serving dinners/entrees/veggies/seafood/ice cream/snack purchases.

Health

Some might assume frozen foods have the same reputation as processed fare, but this is far from true. Frozen food actually contains all of its essential vitamins and minerals preserved from fresh food sources – plus, being more affordable makes frozen options ideal for budget-conscious shoppers.

Frozen food offers another advantage that’s hard to beat: no preservatives are required as its freezing process acts as its form of preservation. It makes frozen food far healthier and more nutritious than its fresh counterpart, with no chemicals being added by way of preservatives or additives.

Additionally, many frozen products are designed specifically for health-conscious consumers. There is an array of nutritious frozen entrees and side dishes available that are low in calories, sugars and sodium content; many come packaged in poly bags, which help prevent freezer burn and loss of nutrients due to moisture loss. Moreover, most fruits and vegetables that freeze well require blanching or partial cooking before being stored safely in freezers.

Sustainability

Frozen food has long been considered a sustainable solution thanks to its ability to provide high-quality meals with lower energy and carbon emissions than its refrigerated and ambient counterparts. Furthermore, frozen food forms an integral component of many household shopping strategies supporting eco-friendly lifestyles.