To buy the makings for a lobster dinner, shoppers used to head for the live lobster tank in a supermarket. Now they can go to the freezer case.

Maine lobster processors are freezing unprecedented amounts of whole lobsters, tails, meat and claws that are sold to retailers, restaurants, cruise ships, casinos and other outlets nationwide.

Some say that more than half of Maine’s annual lobster harvest, which was 62.3 million pounds last year, is processed into frozen products at plants in Maine and Canada. Maine processors handled an estimated 7 million pounds or more.

The maturation of the frozen-lobster business is one of the most significant developments in the industry since lobster traps went from wood to wire.

“People are looking for more convenience, high quality, something fast and easy,” said John Norton, president of Cozy Harbor Seafood Inc. in Portland. “I think these lobster products fit those market needs to a T.”

Not long ago nearly all lobsters caught in Maine ended up in a pot of boiling water in restaurants and homes.

But as Maine’s harvest has increased, from about 20 million pounds a year in the 1980s to more than 50 million pounds in recent years, dealers have had to create new products and find new markets for all those extra lobsters.

Although the season is off to a late start this year, the Fourth of July weekend traditionally marks the unofficial start of lobster season as lobstermen begin catching the crustaceans in large numbers. Steamed or boiled whole lobster is still the most popular lobster product for Mainers and summer visitors.

Besides live lobsters, people can buy frozen lobster products in stores and restaurants from Maine – yes, even in Maine, the nation’s No. 1 lobster state – to Washington state.

Processors say their customers include Red Lobster, McDonald’s, Steak ‘n Ale and Outback Steak House restaurants, national and regional supermarket chains, cruise ship lines and casinos.

David Bengis, president of Icebrand Foods Inc. in Portland, said companies now put bar codes, preparation instructions and recipes on the packaging. They’re also branding products by putting their names and logos on the packages, much like Perdue and Tyson put their names on chicken products.

And, Bengis added, stores and restaurants that otherwise wouldn’t consider lobster are buying frozen products because they don’t have to buy a lobster tank to store them or worry about the product dying on them.

None of this would be possible without improvements in the taste of frozen lobster.

The frozen lobster of the past was typically dry and often tasteless. But sophisticated freezing equipment now puts out a much-improved product. The largest lobster processing companies have adopted a set of processing standards to ensure a uniform product.

At Cozy Harbor, live lobsters are put on a conveyor belt and pass through a tunnel where they are steam-cooked before going through a freezing tunnel where they are frozen solid in minus 150-degree nitrogen gas. Norton says the quick-freezing method doesn’t allow ice crystals to expand inside the lobster flesh and deteriorate the taste or texture.

Hannaford Bros. Co., which sells frozen tails and meat at its 119 supermarkets in the Northeast, has conducted taste tests where consumers could barely tell the difference between frozen and fresh lobster, according to Hannaford spokeswoman Caren Epstein.

“This isn’t that awful, dreadful stuff you used to get out of a can,” Epstein said.

Consumers also like the product because they don’t have to put a thrashing live animal into a pot of boiling water, crack open shells or make a big mess, she said. And the price, $9.99 for a 7-ounce package of lobster meat, doesn’t spike wildly like live lobster prices.

Lobster isn’t the only frozen food growing in popularity. Frozen foods as a whole account for more than $70 billion in annual sales at U.S. retail and food service outlets, according to the American Frozen Food Institute.

No frozen food category is growing faster than seafood, which increased 23 percent from 2000 to 2001, the institute says.

Lobstermen also like the growth in the frozen-lobster category because it has expanded lobster markets and pumped up prices for lobstermen, said Pat White, a York lobsterman and head of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

Even with last year’s record catch, lobstermen still got $3.33 a pound for their catch, the second-highest price on record, partly because of demand from processors in need of lobsters.

“We’re catching three times what we used to catch, and we haven’t taken a cut in price,” White said. “So something’s working.”