Swanson TV dinners

During WWII frozen food became a kitchen necessity but the products were generally just the basic ingredients that had to be assembled and cooked. It was vegetables and meat, poultry or fish that needed to be prepared using your own recipe. Frozen food enabled people to have more variety in the diet but not all of the work was done.

But there were some products, such as fried chicken, that just needed to be heated and they were ready to eat. These products were not common however and it wasn’t until 1953 that a fully prepared frozen meal was introduced. Swanson introduced their frozen dinners with a first selection offering turkey, dressing, peas and sweet potatoes.

The dinners were packed in a aluminum tray with each item in its own separate compartment with aluminum foil covering the top of the tray. The dinner cost 98 cents and Swanson expected to sell a few thousand that first year. But the product was immediately popular and sold 10 million the first year.

The meals were called TV dinners and were sold in a cardboard package that looked like a TV screen. TV’s were the becoming very popular at the time and Swanson wanted to capitalize on it. Swanson soon started offering more types of meals such as Salisbury steak and fried chicken. After several years desserts were added to the menu and through the years there have been many changes.

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