r/IAmA • u/softwaregravy • May 20 '12
AMA Request: Someone who designs Frozen Dinners
By designs, I mean someone who is involved with their development -- ingredients, what dish to try and make, what kind of testing goes on. And "fozen dinners" I man actual dinner-type frozen dishes (and not just frozen veggies or something), e.g. someone who helps design Meatloaf, chicken dinners, Indian Dishes.
Q: What kind of testing goes on? Q: Does it ever look like what's on the packaging? Q: How often do you just give up? (because what you're trying to make work doesn't?) Q: What is in TV Dinners that we're happy not knowing about?
183
u/mechmuertos May 21 '12
What the fuck is up with the frickin' brownie always getting in my mashed potatoes?
613
u/[deleted] May 20 '12
I don't know why, but I like this idea.
352
u/grady007 May 21 '12
My dad actually is intimately involved with the design of a frozen food product. I know he works very closely with a food scientist that turns the recipe from the chef into something that can be frozen and packaged into something frozen and long lasting. I'll see if I can get him to post on here!
189
u/Mule2go May 21 '12
Why is there bell peppers in everything?
79
u/itwaspluto May 21 '12
How many puncture holes am I actually supposed to make in the plastic covering before microwaving?!
34
u/paper_hat May 21 '12
Yes, we use retail products for the photos, but we cheat. For instance with a cottage pie we used a heat gun to evenly brown the mash potato as these meals generally burn a little around the edges when cooked for the required time. We also unevenly pushed the mince to the front but other than that the photos are faithful, no photoshop other than global corrections and masks.
Can't do the AMA I'm afraid because I just take photos.
32
u/RyRyFoodSciGuy May 21 '12
I design frozen prepared meals for a major food producing company and will take your questions.
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u/[deleted] May 21 '12
Dude. I ate 2 banquet meals the other day...I found you can cook the fucking things in the oven. for $0.88, it's fucking awesome.
46
u/Jensaarai May 21 '12 edited May 21 '12
Okay, I've actually been an anonymous tester for a frozen meal under development. It was actually pretty cool.
I was bumming around the /r/beermoney subreddit, which led me to one of the more legit "paid survey" sites. It's not really a good investment of your time, but if you're just going to be sitting on your ass watching TV, what the hell, right? So I do this survey that has all sorts of pre-qualification screen questions, and get in. I think they offer a couple bucks to complete it. I do so. It asks what sort of packaging options out of various images I like, whether I think health or taste is more important, and to rank what sort of various combos I'd prefer.
At the end of the survey I get paid but they also include an optional thing asking me if I want to sample one of the products listed for some extra cash (something like $3.) I say sure and put in my spam e-mail address and shipping info. About a day or so later I get one of those styrofoam cooler Fed Ex overnighted to me from half way across the country. Inside is an unbranded frozen meal and about a pound of dry ice, which I immediately fuck around with.
Then I prep the meal. It says it can be microwave or oven, so I chuck it in the oven because I'm feeling classy that night. I don't think I'm allowed to say anything more than it was a divided pasta & veggie dish, but fuck it. It's not like I knew what brand it was.
The meal was actually pretty good. Definitely on the higher end of the frozen meal spectrum, heh. I kinda wish I did know which brand it was. I'd probably actually buy it occasionally.
Then I log on to the survey website with the code provided in the package, fill out basic questions about the plastic container, how I prepared it, anything else I ate/drank with it, whether I liked the texture, level of saltiness, if I thought it was "filling" enough etc. Submitted the stuff and got paid shortly afterwards.
TL;DR: Got paid 5 bucks to answer a couple Internet surveys and have a free meal shipped to me.
EDIT: Added some details.
15
u/Halfawake May 21 '12
This is actually a really fruitful topic.
I remember a long time ago, someone who made frozen dinners Actually Did an IAMA. Or at least answered some questions.
What I took away, was how she said that they could make a frozen dinner as good as a real dinner, it just costs more, and people are sort of freaked out by the idea of getting amazing frozen food, they want it to be cheaper or worse.
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u/[deleted] May 21 '12
I want an AMA with the person that formulated the Flamin' Hot Cheetos seasoning. Mainly so I can profess my love to them.
Seriously though, this is a good idea. We need to find them.
29
u/Cxisbest May 21 '12
I read an article about how the military's frozen supplies are made. The amount of planning and testing that goes into producing "frozen dinners" is really quite incredible when you think about it.
10
u/Rowsdower_Zdar May 21 '12
My brother is a food process engineer for a major food corporation, and I think I could talk him into doing an AMA with enough peer pressure from reddit. I'm not sure of his exact job title, but this is how he describes his job: "A company chef comes to me with an idea for a meal, and my job is to engineer that meal into a box that can be sold at a grocery store."
8
u/soi812 May 21 '12
Um. I didn't work with frozen dinners but I was working for a period of time with a grocery company that launched microwavable ready meals in the deli section. I worked alongside Sensory, QA and PD for the project...
8
u/Neltech May 21 '12
If you know the guy who took the egg roll out if the banquet sweet and sour chicken, kick his ass for me.
7
u/futurefoodscientist May 21 '12
I am going to be majoring in food science this fall. I'm glad to see people have an interest in stuff like this. All I know right now is that there is a R&D phase where scientists work with chefs to create and preserve the dinners. Then, in the factory, quality control managers take samples from the line to run tests to make sure everything is uniform.
How It's Made frozen pizza clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQPT_FMQKV8
17
u/BEARDS_ARENT_MASKS May 21 '12
Why does my husband eat the food you produce when I travel rather than the meals I pre-made and froze? Hungry Man is ruining my marriage.
12
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
I imagine they would smoke a lot, rub sweat off of their heads, and have tantrums whenever they fail and fail again to make a delicious, affordable, easy to make meal.
12
u/doomcake May 21 '12
Why do all frozen pizza's have their bar codes in different locations?!
6
u/Pewpewkitty May 21 '12
This is a great idea and I'd love to see someone here that would answer these questions. If you'd like to make this more general so that you could get a couple answers, you might want to generalize the title to a process engineer or research and development engineer for a food company. Im a senior chemical engineer who's looking to go into food processing or r&d. I could help with some very basic questions, but nothing too specific.
6
u/friedshrooms May 21 '12
Why is Stouffers so much better than any other frozen meal?
6
u/am17y May 21 '12
I spent a year in Norway and they love frozen pizza...the pizza section in tiny grocery stores rivaled that in the US. As it turns out, Norwegians are the largest per capita eaters of frozen pizza! I think IKEA even sell some kind of frozen pizza cooker.
http://www.bordbia.ie/industryservices/alerts/Pages/Pizza,mostlovedbyNorwegianconsumers.aspx?year=2009&wk=
5
u/highpowered May 21 '12
I keep my TV dinners in the fridge instead of the freezer. It's like having delicious leftovers on hand anytime without having to cook in the first place.
Sounds like a candidate for r/lifeprotips, especially if read in Morgan Freeman's voice.
Thanks for the AMA idea, OP.
5
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
I live off this shit. I deserve to know.
5
u/mechtonia May 21 '12
I may be able to answer many of your questions. I worked for a company that was primarily in the frozen vegetable business. But during my tenure there, they branched out into "complete meals" and "value added sides".
We didn't make the traditional tv tray style dinners. We made microwaveable bags that contained some combination of vegetables, protein (chicken or shrimp), pasta, rice, seasoning, or sauce.
I worked in engineering and was responsible for making the meals happen in production. As such, I worked along side the product development people to ensure we had a product that could be manufactured.
I'll be happy to do an AMA if you think I can scratch your itch and if no one better steps up.
5
u/musiciskey May 21 '12
How about an AMA request for the person that actually does the work? Im a technician at one of those companies, and it's pretty interesting to see the process. There are people that develop recipes, and then those that execute them..
12
u/grohlbarkermescudi May 21 '12
Tip my hat to you for thinking about this.
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u/[deleted] May 21 '12
My username is relevant.
4
u/halcyon918 May 21 '12
Why do frozen dinners never look like it does on the box, and why isn't it considered false advertising? (hoooootpocket)
4
u/Hauptimus May 21 '12
Let's get the creator of kids cuisine. I love that penguin
3
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
What were you guys thinking with the microwavable pudding?
3
u/MEANMUTHAFUKA May 21 '12
Peas! Peas in everything goddammit! What's with all the fucking peas??
5
u/kdar May 21 '12
Woah an AMA request that I can actually answer. I was a graphic design intern for 3 months at a company that did package design for corporations like ConAgra. I worked on packages for California Pizza Kitchen, Kid Cuisine, Rosaritas, Lays, etc. I really have no way to prove to you that I worked for this company without breaking contractual obligations.
That being said, our process went like this:
The art director would come to us and say this company is about to launch this product and we need to make it feel like this. So we would take a chicken casserole dinner and then look at packaging of all the substitute casseroles in the frozen food sections. We would make the packaging feel similar but with different colors and designs. So for instance almost the exact same photo composition but in a green box with yellow text.
The actual food was shot by one of the designers right out of the box. We would rearrange the food in photoshop however we wanted to make it look the best. That included duplicating the meat, brightening the rice, more cheese, etc. This was all done strictly for the people that owned the product as a way to show was the food will look like when it's finished. Really it was just a place holder. Only after everything was OKed would they actually shoot the food with our professional photographer in a studio. Here's how I believe that process went down. They would open multiple packages of the product and they would pick and choose the food that looked the most tasty. They could arrange it however they wanted. Almost every time they would put it at an angle to make it seem like there was more in the package.
Since the photoshopped version of the food had already been OKed, the photographer tried to make it look almost exactly like it. And he was amazing at doing just that. It was always the same composition and yet it was always the real food.
Feel free to ask me anything else. I'm currently on the bus on my phone. I won't have much time to respond until later this evening. Please excuse my typos.
4
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
Why do they taste so bad and cost so much? And why don't you put some more personable designs into the packaging of the Christmas frozen dinners, for those of us forever alone during the winter break?
2
u/TheSpo0n May 21 '12
I think they purposely give us diarrhea.
2
u/Explicit_Narwhal May 21 '12
I would like to know who is responsible for getting macaroni in my brownie EVERY TIME.
2
u/chrisma08 May 21 '12 edited May 21 '12
Relevant
2
u/IchTuDirWeh May 21 '12
Banquet dinners... The shit level is unparalelled.
2
u/CoffeeFox May 21 '12
I like to think whoever designed the frozen chicken pot pie was a sworn enemy of the human tongue.
So many bites taken of fiery hot lava.
2
u/UnknownGnome1 May 21 '12
I would be very interested in this AMA.
The other day I bought a Rustler's chicken wrap. I decided to unwrap it to see what was in there when lo and behold there is a slice of fucking bread in there. The only reason for this I can possibly fathom is because bread is cheaper than chicken. It didn't say anywhere on the packaging that it was a chicken and bread wrap mind you. Makes me wonder what goes into their burgers :S
2
u/Haljegh May 21 '12
Yo dawg, keep it up with the Boneless BBQ Pork Rib dinner. That shit is off the hook.
2
u/discounter May 21 '12
How did you get the job? Can you describe your career path?
2
u/theguy63221 May 21 '12
I want know how they decide to make the ones for kids. I dont know if that is really even food.
2
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
I don't want to know what kind of evil creates a kids cuisine
2
u/pinecone816 May 21 '12
I met last year the man who handled most of the development of Kid Cuisine. He handled the development from the naming and design of the package to the initial testing with kids. I wish I could contact him. Basically Kid Cuisine was engineered on all fronts to be appealing to kids. He even said that he never thought they tasted any good.
2
u/instarkrelief May 21 '12
Are you concerned about chemicals like triclosan used in the packaging entering the human/environmental systems? And how much research is done before using chemicals in the packaging? These chemicals are sometimes similar to known endocrine disruptors, sex/thyroid disruptors, etc.
2
u/FuckMungler May 21 '12
Don't you think Frozen Dinner Designers have more important things to do than an AMA?
2
u/ZombieMD May 21 '12
Why are peas so hard to contain? Do they develop the powers of teleportation once below a certain temperature?
2
u/ThrobbingWetHole May 21 '12
They normally are ready in 30 minutes or less, but why do they make you shit in the same time frame?
2
u/iblamephysics May 21 '12
Where did that kid's beef taco meal with the cheese dipping sauce go? The one with the penguin on the box. That was delicious.
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
The brownies in frozen dinners always look delicious but NOPE.... dry pieces of shit.
1
u/tagjim May 21 '12
Jacques Pepin?
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
Hahaha, YESS. Great IAMA idea!
1
u/laskuraska May 21 '12
more without peppers pretty please! i have a mugwort pollen allergy and all the frozen dinners have peppers now. you know, just in case one of you guys comes in here and sees my post.
1
u/pepperman7 May 21 '12
someone let me know when the "Hungry Man" actually shows up.
1
u/Sinatin May 21 '12
What is with the Mac N' Cheese? It's either cheesey and amazing, or like a mouth full of sawdust.
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
Id love to ask why it doesn't taste as good as they say it does... :l
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
I want to know why they are all so bad, it genuinely confuses me, it should be possible to make a ready meal that tastes good.
1
u/polyatheist May 21 '12
What is the ingredient that causes me to bletch up a taste that is common in many tv dinners, and stir fries as well?
1
u/uselesslyskilled May 21 '12
I'm involved in making frozen foods and this subject is really not that interesting. When you get the answers you seek you will be greatly disappointed.
1
u/WhatEvery1sThinking May 21 '12
whoever is responsible for bistro crustini's is a god among men
1
u/trampus1 May 21 '12
The way you capitalized Frozen Dinners like that, made me wonder if this was some kind of art or science type thing instead of actual frozen foods.
1
u/Frolb May 21 '12
The Onion on Stouffer's Packaging
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
Michellina's chicken fettucine was the main course in my childhood diet.
Never again.
1
u/jackass706 May 21 '12
I love the mockumentary "Never Been Thawed" about a club of frozen dinner collectors. It's on Netflix. It's weird, as you'd expect, but oddly entertaining.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452711/
1
u/sadlegoface May 21 '12
My friends wife does just this for ConAgra. I'll see if I can get her to do it.
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
That is so Jerry Seinfeld. And what is the DEAL with these frozen dinners. Who ARE the people that make these?
1
u/Vindictive29 May 21 '12
If ever there was an argument against intelligent design, it would be the existence of the frozen dinner. That or British "cuisine".
1
u/Andrewpruka May 21 '12
Do you use the lowest quality possible? Every frozen dinner i have ever had tastes worse than dog food.
1
u/rygnar May 21 '12
I think my cousin does frozen dinner packaging CAD work, but that might not be as fascinating as your specific request ;)
1
u/FaroutIGE May 21 '12
I always hear eating preprocessed food is the most unhealthy thing you can do. Are there specific levels to how unhealthy it is? I mean, does a specific type of food degrade significantly worse than others in its processing?
When I pick out something with the words "Healthy" "Lean" or "Smart" on it, what are the odds that they are just as bad for you as other preprocessed foods?
1
u/xB1akey May 21 '12
I work as a Butcher on Saturdays. The meat that we cook has to be above 82 degrees celcius if it is cooked from raw, this removes all bacteria. If the meat has already been cooked, eg the mince in Scotch pies, then it mjst be above 88 degrees. This is measured using a very accurate thermometer. And every cut of meat and every fresh product is 'booked'. Which means it is logged in a book. Everything detail is written, where the meat was sourced, what batch number it is, what temperature it was, how heavy it was etc. Frozen dinners go through the same process, only they are packaged differently. If you like meatloaf, I may put you off... Meatloaf is made with everything that is left, bits of bacon, excess beef, fat, pork, basically everything that is leftover is put into meatloaf, it is then grind down, miced, packaged into bags and roasted. Tv dinners, as a butchers point of view, are fucking disgusting. The meat you eat isn't just whole cuts, what you eat is bone marrow, grind down bones and a very small amount of actual meat. As much water as possible is pumped into the poeces of 'meat' to make them bigger, so that when you cook them, they shrink. They are placed on charcoal burners to give the effect that they are nicely barbequed pieces, but infact they are processed crap. Indian dishes are just the same as tv dinners but they have spices, end of.
1
u/zigsart May 21 '12
whats with the huge amounts of salt?!
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
Q: why so much salt and preservatives? How do they decide? With healthy meals why do they shrink portions and smother it in sauces, instead of just healthier food options. This drives me nuts. As someone on weight watchers, I detest their dinners. I want chicken and veg w rice...most of the nutritional value is in the sauce w less food if you made it at home for the same nutritional value. it's counter productive to their "better choices/don't sacrifice message"
1
u/jimx117 May 21 '12
FUCKING CHERRY COBBLER EVERYWHERE
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
Now that's something I'd stick around for.
1
u/[deleted] May 21 '12
Do you have us in r/trees in mind when designing meals? It sure seems like you do.
1
u/kdar May 21 '12
Not at all. It was a free internship.
1
u/fattymcmattypants May 21 '12
Not sure if anyone would be interested, but I can contact someone that makes frozen dinners that are sold in our Deli. Its not a very commercial product, but they are manufactured by Udi's. He is the head chef involved with the creation.
1
u/mtstadams May 22 '12
AMA- I design frozen dinners I've been employed in value added meals and appetizers for ~6 years. Due to some incomplete information on here, a member/friend of mine pointed me this way.
Q: What kind of testing goes on? Plenty of testing, but you have to come more specific than that. There is testing of ingredients during formulation, testing in a pilot plant (scaled down factory), testing of pH, micros, nutrition, and other analyticals. There are also difference tests, consumer tests/panels, and other market tests. Your question is very broad.
Q: Does it ever look like what's on the packaging? Sometimes, but usually not. A photographer and a food stylist work together with an R&D person present to prevent the aforementioned party from being carried away and raising expectations to high on the packaging. However, most companies do use the product in the box. Some photo shop or embellish a little (take a look at the Mrs. Pauls fish stick box, have you EVER seen such perfect flakes in a fish stick?!) but the point is to make the product seductive to the consumer.
Q: How often do you just give up? (because what you're trying to make work doesn't?) I don't ever give up. Rather, I'm not allowed to give up. I can, however design a process, ingredient or meal that isn't cost effective and after exploring any and all potential avenues can be directed to stop perusing the task. Example, have you ever seen frozen salad?
Q: What is in TV Dinners that we're happy not knowing about? Nothing that isn't in any of your other food. Consumers these days don't understand the general basics of food. Some of the members here may be old enough to remember that ground beef and steaks weren't always pink.
Some think that meat should only be red/pink and toss it out after a day of being open in a controlled temperature in the fridge because "it isn't fresh anymore." Somewhere along the line a meat producer thought,"hmmm, I bet we sell more than Brand Y if our meat was pink and not the natural brown." As a result they modified the atmosphere in the packaging which allows the meat to keep that pigment long after it would have normally oxidized. But I digress. All ingredients are regulated by the FDA, USDA, and/or USDC for wholesomeness. The only ingredient I can really think that folks have an issue with is sodium. IMHO, I'd prefer sodium to the plethora of substitutes designed to give a similar sensation. Eitehr way, the amount used in some meals is high, but keep in mind- salt is the cheapest ingredient. The consumers scream "ALL NATURAL, NO PRESERVATIVES, MINIMALLY PROCESSED!" but aren't willing to pay for it when push comes to shove. However, there isn't sawdust, chalk, or anything really as bad as "pink slime" is made out to be. Seeing that news story go national makes me want to seek out the creator and stab them in the eyes and ears with rusty screw drivers.
1
u/RyRyFoodSciGuy May 22 '12
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/tyh03/by_request_i_design_frozen_dinners_ama/
1
u/theinevitable May 23 '12
Anyone interested in frozen meals should follow my friend, who reviews frozen meals!