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Decaffeination Process

DiGiorno Rising Crust

Fast Easy Meals

Grape-Nuts

Jacobs

Jell-O

Kool-Aid

Kraft Deluxe Process
  Cheese Slices

Maxwell House

Milka

Miracle Whip

Oreo

Oscar Mayer

Philadelphia

Planters Peanuts

Toblerone

Uneeda Biscuits


Fast Easy Meals

To respond to consumers' increased desire for fast, easy-to-prepare meals, Kraft has been a leading innovator in creating products that best meet the needs of busy families.

Kraft Dinner: In 1937, a new era in fast, easy meals began with the introduction of Kraft Dinner - a macaroni and cheese combination that was one of the first packaged meals on the market. Kraft Dinner has remained a family favorite, with more than 7 million boxes purchased every week.

Minute Rice: Refining the unique rice manufacturing process while producing the product for U.S. troops from 1943 to 1945, Minute Rice was made available to U.S. consumers in 1946. This product innovation cut rice cooking time from one hour to less than 10 minutes, and single-handedly spawned the quick-cooking rice market segment.

Shake 'N Bake: Launching a revolution in the way consumers prepared meat and fish, Shake 'N Bake was first introduced in 1965. To cut down on preparation time and eliminate messy clean-up, the product included an envelope of seasoned coating mix for chicken or fish and a plastic shaker bag that could be thrown away after use.

Lunchables: Oscar Mayer in 1985 found that making bagged lunches topped the list of working women's biggest mealtime hassles, so a team set out to develop a product that would create a solution for busy moms and help to boost company sales. Oscar Mayer launched the blockbuster Lunchables product in 1988. Lunchables quickly became the best-selling product in Oscar Mayer's history, and created the lunch combinations product category.

Kraft's latest effort to respond to consumer demand for convenience is Easy Mac. This innovative product requires only the use of a bowl and a microwave, so today's older kids can "cook" Kraft Macaroni and Cheese on their own, independent of their busy parents.

J. L. Kraft
Joel Cheek
William Christie
Adolphus Green
Johann Jacobs
Oscar Mayer
Edwin Perkins
C. W. Post
Dr. Ludwig Roselius
Philippe Suchard
Theodore Tobler
Fred Walker
Quality & Safety
Products
Packaging
Marketing
Brand Evolution
Did You Know?

Did You Know..?
Click an image above to learn fun and interesting facts about our history.

In recent years, the Milka cow has become so interwoven into the popular culture that when German school children are asked to draw a farm scene, they often color the cows lilac. More>>

Mr. Peanut was the brainchild of a 14-year-old boy who entered a Planters-sponsored trademark contest in 1916. More>>

Oscar Mayer hires recent college graduates to hold the coveted position of "Hotdogger" and travel the country driving the Wienermobile and promoting Oscar Mayer products. More>>

Kool-Aid Man, continually ranked by kids as one of the most-loved brand mascots, has been honored with a footprint ceremony at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. More>>

www.comidakraft.com was one of the first-ever bilingual food Web sites. More>>

In 1976, Maxwell House introduced the first coffee specially ground, blended and roasted for use in automatic drip coffee makers. More>>

Made of wheat and malted barley, Grape-Nuts was so named because its inventor, Charles William Post, said that grape sugar was formed during the baking process and described the cereal as having a nutty flavor. More>>

Jacobs Kaffee now enjoys a 30 percent share of the European coffee market and the Jacobs brand is the largest-selling dry grocery product in Germany. More>>

Named by merging the family name, Tobler, with Italian specialty nougat candy Torrone, Toblerone was introduced to the world in 1908, and a year later became the first patented milk chocolate candy that contained a unique combination of almonds and honey. More>>

Oreo cookies were among the first "interactive" foods - offering people myriad ways to enjoy them, including dunking them in milk, twisting the cookies apart. More>>

The innovation of Minute Rice cut rice cooking time from one hour to less than 10 minutes, and single-handedly spawned the quick-cooking rice market segment. More>>

Within one year of its national introduction in 1950, Kraft Deluxe process cheese slices became the most successful product introduction in the company's then nearly 50-year history. More>>

By soaking coffee beans in brine, Dr. Ludwig Roselius developed a technique that removed 97 percent of the caffeine from coffee without removing the flavor. More>>

J. L. Kraft revolutionized the production of cheese when he discovered that if he heated and continuously stirred cheese, then placed it in a sterile container, when the cheese cooled, it would regain its solid state. More>>

Oscar Mayer was among the first meat packers to put its name on meat products, a marketing tool that helped differentiate its products from its competitors. More>>

National Biscuit Company (later renamed Nabisco, Inc.) took a major step forward in 1898 by packaging Uneeda biscuits in a revolutionary, patented "in-er-seal" package, an ingenious system of inter-folded layers of wax paper and cardboard. More>>

Each year, Nabisco uses nearly 3,000 miles of string to harness the Barnum's Animals crackers packages. More>>

To differentiate Kraft cheese spreads from the competition in the early 1930s, Kraft sold its spreads in brightly decorated five-ounce glass jars called Swankyswigs that could be reused as drinking glasses. More>>

Oscar Mayer established a research division in 1941, solely dedicated to developing new and improved packaging concepts, including the "slice pak," the first vacuum-package designed for sliced cold cuts, and the "chub" package, vacuum-sealed tubes containing liver sausage, pork sausage and sandwich spreads. More>>

In 2001, Maxwell House introduced a new "EZ Open lid," which completely eliminated the need for a can opener on its coffee cans. More>>

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