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14:09 Oct 6, 2011
French to English translations [PRO] Food & Dairy
French term or phrase:Surgelé et Congelé
Hi everyone,
I'm translating a website for a frozen foods supplier and they have differentiated in their text between "produits surgelés et congelés".
I would say "frozen" in English for both but I was wondering if anyone with experience in the food industry could tell me whether there was an English term in common usage for either that could differentiate them.
Explanation: While in everyday speech we don't make a distinction, if your industrialist does then a distinction must be made.
The website immediately below explains the difference in some detail (I've quoted just a summary): for example, " Certains poissons portent la mention « congelé » car ils subissent une transformation après surgélation (une découpe par exemple)".
PRODUIT CONGELE :
* Produit sain au départ
* Refroidissement à basse température (mini – 12 °C)
* Maintien à température inférieure à – 12 °C
The International Institute of Refrigeration recognizes two types of frozen foods: (i ) frozen foods (congele); and (ii) quick-frozen foods (surgele).1 The former ...
Oops, forgot to copy the link.
Industrial foods are undoubtedly all "quick frozen" these days, while it is possible that the leftovers we at home put in the freezer (congélateur, not surgélateur) for consumption – or not – at a later date is undoubtedly just/slow-frozen. At the man-in-the-street level we don't make any distinction in English, and even if we buy a packet of "deep-frozen" peas, they're just "frozen peas" to us. And while the French might – and I say "might" – BUY petits pois surgélés and pick and FREEZE THEIR OWN, home-grown petits pois congélés, I suspect they don't – make the distinction, that is.
La CONGÉLATION NE DOIT PAS ÊTRE CONFONDUE AVEC LA SURGÉLATION, procédé industriel qui permet de CONGELER DES PRODUITS QUE LA CONGÉLATION NE PERMET PAS de façon satisfaisante. La CONGÉLATION RÉALISÉE AVEC UN CONGÉLATEUR DOMESTIQUE, muni de la fonction adéquate, n'est pas comparable aux TECHNIQUES INDUSTRIELLES DE SURGÉLATION où le produit est exposé au froid négatif par des procédés faisant appel à des températures allant de -35 à -196 °C. Les deux techniques étant différentes, la durée de conservation des aliments n'est donc pas la même, la surgélation permettant une conservation généralement deux fois plus longue. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congélateur
La CONGÉLATION est un procédé de préservation d’une denrée par refroidissement au-dessous de son point de congélation et par maintien ensuite à basse température.
La SURGÉLATION (OU QUICK FREEZING) est une congélation effectuée rapidement, à température suffisamment basse, et suivie d’une conservation à – 20 °C (ou au-dessous) de façon à préserver au mieux saveur, couleur et texture du produit. Elle a été introduite aux États-Unis par Clarence Birdseye [the pea man!] (1886-1956) en 1923. http://www.larousse.fr/archives/grande-encyclopedie/page/354...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 3 hrs (2011-10-06 17:22:01 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Deep vs quick and the UK
In the mid 1950s Birds Eye built a large factory at Lowestoft (then a major fishing port). By the early 1950s, after a host of problems with production, raw materials, and distribution, Birds Eye was firmly established. In 1952, it opened the “EMPIRE’S LARGEST QUICK-FROZEN FOOD FACTORY” in GREAT YARMOUTH.
... ]
QUICK FROZEN FOODS appeared in the mid 1930s, however at that time few (if any) homes had a freezer and few shops had them either. Small scale QUICK-FREEZING was carried out in the 1930s by a number of processors using different freezing techniques. Fish merchanting companies such as Associated Fisheries Ltd and H Smethurst (Fish Curers) Ltd froze fish primarily for the catering trade, while some freezing of vegetables was undertaken by Smedley's Ltd. The manufacture of consumer-sized packs of frozen foods for national distribution through the retail trade was pioneered by Birds Eye after the Second World War. It was only after 1957 that the market developed, but it did so quickly with annual growth running at about 36 percent for the first few years.
The frozen food industry was, by the 1970s, the major purchaser of UK grown vegitables[sic].
[ ... ]
Since the 1980s the DEEP FROZEN FOOD INDUSTRY has seen a decline as 'CHILLED' foods gained in popularity.
[ ... ]
Modelling UK Frozen Food Factories and Distribution
DEEP FROZEN FOODS benefit greatly from the economies of scale, production costs are high and a high turnover is required to make the process economic. Hence there were few, if any, small independent frozen food works prior to World War Two however since then there have been a number of factories set up, as well as the 'brand name' firms such as Findus and Birds Eye there are a lot of firms who sell their produce to be branded by the retailers
[ ... ]
IN THE UK MOST DEEP FROZEN FISH AND VEGETABLE FACTORIES are in the East close to the farms and ports that supply them. It was only in 1957 that British fish were DEEP FROZEN for the first time, this allowed the fish to be stored for up to nine months http://www.igg.org.uk/gansg/12-linind/frozen.htm
I suspect there is some truth in this Wikipedia statement :
The introduction of Freon in the 1920s expanded the refrigerator market during the 1930s and provided a safer, low-toxicity alternative to previously used refrigerants. Separate freezers became common during the 1940s, the popular term at the time for the unit was a "DEEP freeze". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator
i.e. "deep freeze" is not actually that "deep", just colder than what you get in the icebox of a normal fridge, i.e. what you get in your domestic freezer, which is NOT capable of quick-freezing.
I imagine the difference is akin to that between pasteurized milk (heated to a moderately hot temperature and held there for a longish time) and UHT/sterilized milk which is - apart from being habsolutely orrible - heated to a very high temperature for a short time.
"Fast frozen" is used in the food business, and it is used (or used to be used in the US), but if this is for something short and snappy, I'd just stick with "frozen foods" and "frozen and deep frozen foods" if it's necessary to make the distinction (temperature and storage time, as Oliver says). And I'd put frozen first, as it makes more sense to work your way from the unmodified to the modified "frozen". For HACCP, the distinction is obviously important.
In U.K. useage at least, 'deep frozen' refers to the lower freezing temperatuure and the length of time something can remain frozen for, while frozen usually refers to items in the freezers or chiller cabinets of supermarkets. So far as I'm aware, neither term refers to the length of time it takes to actually freeze an item, and I've never heard of "quick or fast frozen" as a synonym for deep freezing.
I am looking in this case really for a term in common use. It is quite a salesy snappy website full of slogans and I don't want to get dictionary or scientific about it and risk losing the attraction to the end client. I would tend to agree with both Bourth and Benjamin's comments in that (whilst it may be incorrect), "frozen" would be used for both in common language. I've just never seen websites, sites or billboards in English proclaiming "deep-frozen/quick-frozen" goods for sale. I'm not sure if that's just me (as I'm not a big consumer of frozen goods)...
I wasn't sure if the industry had come up with terms that sounded more appetising :)
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
7 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +7
Deep frozen and frozen (chilled) products
Explanation: Case No COMP/M.1740 - HEINZ / UNITED BISCUITS FROZEN AND ...
6 Dec 1999 ... Frozen and Chilled Foods Limited (“UBFCF”) by way of purchase of ... All three of these food categories are available in both deep-frozen ...
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases/decisions/m174...
Frozen and deep-frozen foods - Food & Related products - Europages
54 companies for: Frozen and deep-frozen foods. Here is the list of suppliers, producers ... H J HEINZ FROZEN & CHILLED FOODS LTD. Supplier of: Frozen and ...
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +7
