Timeline of Food
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Food:
www.foodreference.com/html/HistoricEvents.html
Food Timeline: http://www.foodtimeline.org/
c20k BCE Plant
remains from this time were found at the Ohalo II site on the shore of
the Sea of Galilee indicating use of barley and perhaps other grains in
the human diet.
(SFC, 6/22/04, p.A3)(SFC, 8/16/04, p.A6)
8000BC The potato was first cultivated some 10,000
years ago by South American Indians. In the 16th century Spanish
explorers brought potatoes back to Europe, where it was first used
primarily as livestock feed. The potato was introduced to North America
in the 17th century. In the 18th century, the poor of Europe began to
use potatoes as a replacement for cereals in their diets. The failure
of the potato crop in Ireland in 1845-46 led to great famine and pushed
tens of thousands of Irish to emigrate to the United States. In 2008 it
was reported that genetic studies by potato experts indicated that all
potatoes originated over 10,000 years ago from a single ancestor,
Solanum brevicaule, found on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca.
(HNQ, 5/10/98)(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A15)
8000BC A genetic mutation among northern Europeans
about this time made lactose tolerance continue beyond childhood.
(WSJ, 2/12/0/09, p.A11)
c7,975BCE Humans lived in a cave near Oaxaca, Mexico,
named Guila Naquitz (White Cliff). Scattered remains of tools, seeds
and plants were found in 1966 by archeologist Kent Flannery and some of
the seeds were dated to this time. The squash seeds showed signs of
cultivation.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.A2)
c5100BCE In 2001 evidence in Mexico was reported for
corn cultivation from sediments of this time.
(SFC, 5/18/01, p.A7)
c5,000BCE Research in 2003 indicated that bananas and
taro were cultivated in the highlands of Papua New Guinea as long as
7,000 years ago. The first signs of human habitation in the area
occurred c5,800 BCE and included a change from forest to grasslands and
increase in charcoal in the sediments. The earliest Asian influence on
the islands occurred about 1,500 BCE.
(AP, 6/19/03)
c4000BCE Apples (Malus Sieversii) similar to modern
day varieties began to appear around Almaty, Kazakhstan. These
ultimately produced the Red Delicious and Golden Delicious in America.
The Red Delicious was hybridized into the Fuji and the Empire. The
Golden Delicious was hybridized into the Gala, the Jonagold, the Mutsu,
Pink Lady and Elstar.
(WSJ, 7/3/03, p.A1)
2700BCE Domesticated maize in Mexico goes back to
this time.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, Z1 p.2)
1500BC-1100BC Evidence found in 1998 revealed terraced farming for corn
back to this time in northeast Mexico on a hilltop overlooking the Rio
Casa Grandes.
(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A11)
500BC The Chinese learned to
ferment soybean around this time. The fermentation removed toxins and
made soy easier to digest. It had already been used for thousands of
years as fertilizer.
(SSCM, 8/13/06, p.6)
356BC-323BC The people have a myth
that Alexander the Great during his conquests ordered his 11 doctors to
create a remedy for all sick people and that as a result pilaf was
invented. Around 1000-1100 Mahmud of Kashgar, China, recorded a similar
story but substituted tutmach (noodles) for pilaf.
(SFC, 8/14/96, zz-1 p.2)
74BC According to Pliny the Roman
General Lucullus introduced cherries to Europe. Greeks had cultivated
cherries hundreds of years before this.
(SFC, 4/12/03, p.E3)
400-500 About this time Apicius, a Roman gourmand,
authored “De re coquinara” (concerning cookery). It is considered to be
the first Western cookbook. The first printed edition came out in 1483.
(Econ, 12/20/08,
p.140)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apicius)
800-900 In Poland a 9th century edict forbade Jews
from baking. The law was supposedly circumvented by boiling bread and
then toasting it. This process is believed to have led to the creation
of the bagel.
(WSJ, 11/29/08, p.W11)
c850CE Outsiders found coffee in the region of
Ethiopia called Kaffa, hence the name.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, Z1
p.4)(http://www.koffeekorner.com/koffeehistory.htm)
1202 King John of England
proclaimed the 1st food law, the Assize of Bread. It prohibited the
adulteration of bread with ground peas.
(Econ Sp, 12/13/03, p.15)
1315 In France Parisian bakers
were found guilty of mixing flour with animal droppings during the
Great Famine.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1492 May 15, Cheese and Bread
rebellion: German mercenaries killed 232 Alkmaarse.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1492 Nov 5, Christopher Columbus
learned of maize (corn) from the Indians of Cuba.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1496 A Polish edict, pushed by
Krakow’s gentile bakers, banned Jews from selling bagels within the
city limits.
(www.nextbook.org/cultural/feature.html?id=1075)
1498 Jun 26, Toothbrush was
invented. In China the first toothbrushes with hog bristles began to
show up. Hog bristle brushes remained the best until the invention of
nylon.
(SFC, 6/6/98, p.E3)(MC, 6/26/02)
1500s The popularity of
surströmming, a Swedish fermented herring with a noxious stench,
surged in the early 1500s and again in the early 1700s.
(WSJ, 8/13/02, p.A1)
1511 In Mecca, Arabia, there was
an attempt to ban coffee.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.90)
1515-1519 Coffee from Arabia appeared in Europe.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
c1525 First found in Peru by
invading Spaniards, the tomato was also known as a "love apple" or
"wolf peach" and regarded with suspicion and shunned as food. It was
believed to be unhealthy or downright poisonous and given the Latin
name Lycopersicon, or "wolf peach." In Europe it was thought to be a
potent-and thus forbidden-aphrodisiac, hence the name "love apple."
Thomas Jefferson grew tomatoes in the late 1700s, but they weren't
widely consumed in Europe and America until the early 1800s.
(HNQ, 1/3/99)
1527 Hernando Cortez and his
conquistadores completed the conquest of New Spain. They brought back
to Spain tomatoes, avocados, papayas, and vanilla.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)
1528 Wheat was introduced into New
Spain.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.13)
1550 Jul 7, Chocolate was
introduced (Europe).
(MC, 7/7/02)
1553 Pedro Cieza de Leon wrote the
first European description of the potato in his “Chronicles of Peru.”
(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A15)
1577 Francisco Hernandez, Spanish
explorer traveling through Mexico’s highlands, noted the many uses of
the maguey (agave) plant. He cited it as a useful fuel, a material for
cloth and ropes, with sap used to make vinegar and wine.
(Arch, 9/02, p.32)
1586 Jul 28, Sir Thomas Harriot
introduced potatoes to Europe.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1621 Oct, The first American
Thanksgiving was held in Massachusetts' Plymouth colony in 1621 to give
thanks for a bountiful harvest. 51 Pilgrims served codfish, sea bass
and turkeys while their 90 Wampanoag guests contributed venison to the
feast. After the survival of their first colony through a bitter winter
and the subsequent gathering of the harvest in the autumn of 1621,
Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford issued a thanksgiving
proclamation. During the three-day October thanksgiving the Pilgrims
feasted on wild turkey and venison with their Native American guests.
American Indians introduced cranberries to the white settlers.
(HNPD, 11/26/98)(SSFC, 11/16/03, p.C11)(Econ,
12/18/04, p.122)
1621 In Germany potatoes, native
to the Andes, were first planted.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.3)
1630 Feb 22, Indians introduced
pilgrims to popcorn at Thanksgiving.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1630 Jun 25, The fork was
introduced to American dining by Gov. Winthrop.
(MC, 6/25/02)
c1630 The widow of a samurai set
up a business that grew to become the Kikkoman Corp., the world’s
leading maker of soy sauce.
(WSJ, 12/27/99, p.A1)(Econ, 12/18/04, p.105)
1637 May 13, Cardinal Richelieu of
France created the table knife.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1640 The Massachusetts Bay Company
sent 300,000 codfish to market.
(SFC, 5/24/97, p.E3)
1660 May 7, Isaack B. Fubine of
Savoy, in The Hague, patented macaroni.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1673 Feb 20, The 1st recorded wine
auction was held in London.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1683 Sep 12, Marco d'Aviano, sent
by Pope Innocent XI to unite the outnumbered Christian troops, spurred
them to victory. The Turks left behind sacks of coffee which the
Christians found too bitter, so they sweetened it with honey and milk
and named the drink cappuccino after the Capuchin order of monks to
which d'Aviano belonged. An Austrian baker created a crescent-shaped
roll, the Kipfel, to celebrate the victory. Empress Maria Theresa later
took it to France where it became the croissant.
(Reuters, 4/28/03)(WSJ, 6/3/03, p.D5)
1708 Thomas Corneille mentioned
Camembert cheese in his geographical dictionary.
(Econ, 7/26/03, p.79)
1720 Jun 10, Mrs. Clements of
England marketed the 1st paste-style mustard.
(MC, 6/10/02)
1727 The 1st English-language
recipe for "English Katchop" was published in "E. Smith's Compleat
Housewife, or Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion."
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.E4)
1727 Brazil planted its first
coffee.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1733 May 17, England passed the
Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum and molasses imported to the
colonies from a country other than British possessions.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1738 Apr 15, The bottle opener was
invented.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1741 Apr 13, Dutch people
protested the bad quality of bread.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1742 England's "Compleat
Housewife" cookbook was published in North America.
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.E4)
1743 "Kitchup" was declared a
kitchen staple in a British housekeeper's guide. Fish, mushroom and
walnut emerged as the 3 main ketchups.
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.A1)
1744 May 11, In Britain Elizabeth
Robinson of Middlesex and 2 other women were tried and convicted at the
Old Bailey on charges of stealing 104 imported China oranges from a
grocer’s warehouse with the intent to sell them. She was sentenced to
transport for a term of 7 years. She was pregnant and gave birth on
ship.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T9)
1755 Jun 30, Philippines closed
all non-Catholic Chinese restaurants.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1758 Feb 15, The 1st mustard
manufactured in America was advertised in Philadelphia.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)(HCB, 2003, p. 94)
1772 The Paris Faculty of Medicine
declared potatoes to be an edible food.
(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A15)
1774 Sep 26, John Chapman
(d.1845), later known as Johnny Appleseed, was born in
Massachusetts. A pioneer agriculturalist of early America,
Chapman began his trek in 1797, collecting apple seedlings from western
Pennsylvania and establishing apple nurseries around the early American
frontier. Chapman was a Swedenborgian missionary, a land speculator, a
heavy drinker and an eccentric dresser (he hated shoes and seldom wore
them. He planted orchards across western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and
Indiana from seed.
(www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=94)(T&L, 10/1980,
p.42)(HNQ, 9/4/01)(ON, 4/09, p.10)
1777 May 12, The 1st ice cream
advertisement appeared in the Philip Lenzi NY Gazette.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1784 Mar 1, E. Kidner opened the
1st cooking school in Great Britain.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1785 Mar 1, Philadelphia Society
for the Promotion of Agriculture was organized.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1788 “The Art of Cookery, Made
Plain and Easy” by Hannah Glasse was published in London.
(SFC, 5/4/05, p.G10)
1791 Legend says the Harel family
began making Camembert cheese before this time. The family had given a
priest refuge, who in gratitude gave them the recipe. In 2003 Pierre
Boisard authored "Camembert: A National Myth."
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.M3)
1792 Mar 4, Oranges were
introduced to Hawaii.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1794 Jul 5, Sylvester Graham,
developed graham cracker, was born.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1795 Lime juice was issued to all
British sailors to aid in prevention of scurvy. Captain James Cook
(d.1779) had prepared a paper detailing his groundbreaking work against
scurvy. He was awarded the gold Copley Medal-one of the highest honors
of England's Royal Society. Scurvy epidemics were once common among
sailors on long voyages. Cook was the first to beat the problem,
recognizing the need for an appropriate diet for his sailors.
(HNQ, 7/21/98)
1798 Thomas Robert Malthus
authored his “An Essay on the Principle of Population As it affects the
future improvement of society with remarks on the speculations of Mr.
Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers.” His forecast for a population
crash was based on the calculation that it was impossible to improve
wheat yields as fast as people make babies. His 2nd edition in 1803
introduced the idea of moral restraint.
(www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Malthus/essay2.htm)(Econ,
12/24/05, p.29)(Econ, 5/17/08, p.94)
1800 John Chapman (1774-1845),
Johnny Appleseed, a Swedenborgian missionary, a land speculator, a
heavy drinker and an eccentric dresser, began planting orchards across
western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana from seed. (T&L, 10/1980,
p.42) )(AHD, p.225)(HNQ, 1/2/01)
c1800 Worcestershire sauce was a
ketchup and came out about this time.
(SFC, 7/3/96, zz-1,p.3)
1801 Nov 9, Gail Borden (d.1874),
inventor of condensed milk, was born in New York.
(ON, 5/04, p.4)(Internet)
1801 Elder John Leland, a Baptist
minister, helped commission a 1,235-pound wheel of Cheshire cheese as a
gift of gratitude for Thomas Jefferson's steadfast support of religious
liberties.
(SSFC, 8/17/03, p.M1)
1803 Feb 14, An apple parer was
patented by Moses Coats in Downington, Penn.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1803 May 17, John Hawkins and
Richard French patented a reaping machine.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1803 Thomas Robert Malthus
(1766-1834), English political economist, authored the 2nd edition of
his 1798 “An Essay on the Principle of Population.” This edition
introduced the idea of moral restraint.
(Econ, 5/17/08,
p.94)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthus)
1805 As early as 1805, Bostonian
Frederic Tudor (b.1783) considered ways to make money by exporting ice,
a valueless commodity in New England, to the tropics. Tudor supported
technical innovations, like the horse-drawn sleigh with saw-like
runners, which improved the cutting, shipping and storage of large ice
blocks. Recognizing that people living in warm climates were not
familiar with cool food and drinks, Tudor traveled to prospective
markets making ice cream and providing free ice for barkeepers. By
1856, Tudor's role as the "Ice King" was firmly established as 146,000
tons of ice shipped from Boston transformed the eating habits of people
from the Philippines to the southern United States.
(HNPD, 4/13/99)
1806 Apr 5, Isaac Quintard
patented apple cider.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1806 Jul 3, Michael Keens
exhibited the 1st cultivated strawberry.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1807 May 22, Townsend Speakman 1st
sold fruit-flavored carbonated drinks in Phila.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1809 Nicholas Appert won a French
prize of 12,000 francs for his method of keeping food in glass bottles.
Napoleon had offered the prize with military needs in mind.
(SFC, 9/19/07, p.G6)
1810 Apr 17, Lewis Norton of Troy,
PA., introduced his pineapple cheese.
(440 Int'l, 4/17/03)
1810 Peter Durand, a British
merchant, was granted a patent by King George III for his idea of
preserving food in "vessels of glass, pottery, tin (tin can), or other
metals or fit materials."
(www.cancentral.com/history.htm)
1812 The 1st American recipe for
tomato ketchup was published.
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.E4)
1813 Jan 11, The 1st pineapples
were planted in Hawaii (or 1/21).
(MC, 1/11/02)
1814 Jun 3, Nicolas Appert
(b.1749), French cook, died. He was the winner of a 12,000 franc prize
offered by Napoleon for developing a method to preserve food. His
original canning method took 14 years to develop and used glass jars
sealed with wax reinforced with wire.
(WSJ, 1/21/03, p.A1)(www.foodreference.com)
1815 Feb 3, World's 1st commercial
cheese factory was established, in Switzerland.
(MC, 2/3/02)
1816 Henry Hall, a Cape Cod
farmer, discovered that sand spread over wild cranberry plants induced
good growth.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.123)
1817 Dr. William Kitchiner
authored his cookbook "Apicius Redivivus, or the Cook's Oracle." It
included 11 ketchup recipes, including 2 each for mushroom, walnut and
tomato ketchups, and one each for cucumber, oyster and cockles and
mussels ketchups.
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.E4)
1820 Jun 28, The tomato was proven
to be non-poisonous.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1820 Aug 7, The 1st potatoes were
planted in Hawaii.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1825 Jan 19, Ezra Daggett and
nephew Thomas Kensett received a patent from Pres. Monroe for food
storage in tin cans. [see 1810]
(www.foodreference.com/html/html/january19.html)
1828 Apr 4, Casparus van Wooden
patented chocolate milk powder (Amsterdam).
(MC, 4/4/02)
1830 Commercial bottling
operations for ketchup began in Boston.
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.E4)
1830 Some sources say that the 1st
pizzeria opened in Naples about this time. [see 1889]
(SFCM, 4/18/04, p.16)
1833 Apr 24, A patent was granted
for the first soda fountain.
(HN, 4/24/98)
1834 Nov 25, Delmonico's, one of
NY's finest restaurants, provided a meal of soup, steak, coffee &
half a pie for 12 cents.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, Z1 p.6)
1835 Sep 13, Ladd & Co. began
the 1st sugar cane plantation in Hawaii.
(www.laddfamily.com/Files/Hawaii.htm)
1837 Aug 28, Pharmacists John Lea
& William Perrins began to manufacture Worcester Sauce. [see 1834]
(MC, 8/28/01)
1841 Mar 22, Cornstarch was
patented by Orlando Jones.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1845 The Economist magazine began
tabulating a food price index.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.11)
1845-1846 As Ireland’s potato crop was consumed by
blight. The nation’s peasants, who relied on the potato as their
primary food source, starved. The famine took as many as one million
lives from hunger and disease and caused mass emigration. The British
government responded to the calamity too late with too little aid, even
though eyewitnesses reported the suffering in the press.
(HNPD, 3/17/99)
1847 Britain passed a Vagrancy Act
to combat begging as famine swept Ireland.
(AP, 11/25/08)
1847 Sweet chocolate made its
debut.
(NH, 6/03, p.74)
1848 May 30, William Young
patented the ice cream freezer.
(HN, 5/30/98)
1849 Oct, The Boudin Sourdough
Bakery was founded in San Francisco by French immigrant Isador Boudin
during the Gold Rush. Boudin first used ordinary sourdough to bake a
French-style bread. In 1941 the firm was bought by Steven Giraudo. By
1997 the 10th and Geary facility was a $500 million operation selling
bread under the Parisian, Colombo and other labels.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A1)(SFC,
5/10/05, p.D1)
1849 By this time Maunsel White, a
New Orleans plantation owner, was growing peppers that had originated
in Mexico’s state of Tabasco. He devised a sauce using the pepper.
(WSJ, 10/9/07, p.D11)
1850 May 10, Thomas Johnstone
Lipton, yachtsman, tea magnate (Lipton Tea), was born in Glasgow.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1850 Jul 14, The 1st public
demonstration of ice made by refrigeration took place. James Harrison
of Australia designed an ice-making machine. It was an improvement on
one invented by Jacob Perkins in 1834.
(MC, 7/14/02)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1850 James Folger (18), a native
of Massachusetts, began roasting beans in SF. Folger’s Coffee
established itself on the Barbary Coast and was the first major coffee
company in SF. Jim Folger eventually traveled to the gold country to
sell coffee to miners.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.A1)(SFC,
6/5/08, p.C2)
1850 The Granny Smith apple
originated about this time in Australia. According to Morgan and
Richards The Book of Apples: A Mrs. Smith, born in England in 1800,
emigrated to Australia in 1838. In 1860s she found some seedlings
growing in a creek where she had tipped out some apples brought back
from Sydney. Tree was propagated and later family increased their
orchards and marketed fruit in Sydney.
(www.newint.org/issue212/simply.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/32lr8c)
1850-1859 The 1st recipe for ginger ale was created
in Ireland in the 1850s.
(SFC, 6/29/05, p.F12)
1851 Jan 31, Gail Borden announced
the invention of evaporated milk.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1851 Jun 15, Jacob Fussell,
Baltimore dairyman, set up the 1st ice-cream factory.
(MC, 6/15/02)
1853 May 14, Gail Borden applied
for a patent for condensed milk.
(HN, 5/14/98)
1853 Aug 24, The 1st potato chips
were prepared by Chef George Crum at Saratoga Springs, NY.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1855 Anderson Preserve Co.
incorporated. It sold Boston Market Catsup throughout the US.
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.E4)
1856 Aug 19, Gail Borden
(1801-1874) received a patent for condensed milk and opened a small
factory for its production in Walcottville, Conn. At this time milk in
NYC sold for 6-7 cents a quart.
(ON, 5/04, p.5)(AP, 8/19/06)
1857 Sep 13, Milton S. Hershey,
chocolate manufacturer and philanthropist, was born in central
Pennsylvania.
(www.hersheys.com/about/milton.shtml)
1857 Neuhaus began making
chocolate in Belgium.
(SFC, 9/15/96, p.T9)
1858 Ezra Warner of Waterbury,
Connecticut, patented a tin can opener that looked like a bent bayonet.
(www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story080.htm)
1860 Apr 7, Will Keith Kellogg,
the brother of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943), was born. Will
later founded the W.K. Kellogg company in Battle Creek, Mich., to
market the cornflakes invented by his older brother. [see 1895]
(HN, 4/7/99)(WSJ, 9/29/00, p.W17)
1861 May 21, Elena Molokhovets
(1831-1918), Russian writer, published “A Gift to Young Housewives,”
which remained popular in Russia for half a century.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.141)(http://tinyurl.com/6u8dj4)
1862 May 15, The US Department of
Agriculture was created.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1863 William Banting, An English
undertaker, printed his pamphlet “Letter on Corpulence,” in which he
recommended a high protein diet that helped him loose weight. The diet
was based on one recently recommended for diabetics.
(WSJ, 5/5/04, p.B1)
1864 Sep 4, Bread riots took place
in Mobile, Alabama.
(MC, 9/4/01)
1864 The Robinson family purchased
Niihau Island from the Hawaiian monarchy and moved there from New
Zealand. The family founded the Gay and Robinson Sugar Co.
(SFC, 8/31/02, p.A21)
1866 May 16, Charles Elmer Hires
invented root beer.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1867 Feb 17, William Cadbury,
chocolate manufacturer, was born.
(HN, 2/17/98)
1867 Sep 5, The first shipment of
cattle left Abilene, Kansas, on a Union Pacific train headed to Chicago.
(HN, 9/5/98)
c1867 In NYC restaurateur and
entrepreneur Charles Feltman, who owned a pie wagon at Coney, was
looking for something simple he could prepare and serve in a confined
space. He hit on the idea of putting a hot sausage in a hard roll.
Another version puts Feltman in his German restaurant, Feltman's Ocean
Pavilion, when at some point a sausage ended up between two slices of
bread. Feltman called it a frankfurter, and cartoonists labeled it a
"hot dog."
(HNQ, 7/10/01)
1869 Jun 9, Charles Elmer Hires
sold his 1st root beer in Phila.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1869 Jul 15, Margarine was
patented by Hippolye Mega-Mouriss for use by French Navy.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1869 Aug 24, Cornelius Swarthout
of Troy, New York, patented the waffle iron.
(HN, 8/24/00)
1869 Henry J. Heinz partnered with
L.C. Noble to form Heinz & Noble in Sharpsburg, Pa., selling fruit
and vegetable preserves. They produced tomato and walnut ketchup for 24
cents per gallon and sold them from whiskey barrels.
(SFC, 8/27/03,
p.E4)(www.hfp.heinz.org/aboutus/heinzhistory.html)
1869 About this time Edmund
McIlhenny, banker, traveled to New Orleans and acquired some pepper
seeds from a man on the street, which he grew and used to develop
a hot sauce that he called Tabasco, after peppers from Mexico’s
state of Tabasco. In 2007 Jeffrey Rothfeder authored McIlhenny’s Gold:
How a Louisiana Family Built the Tabasco Empire.”
(SFC, 4/5/99, p.A3)(WSJ, 10/9/07, p.D11)
1869 Pillsbury was founded as a US
flour milling company.
(WSJ, 5/5/99, p.B1)
1869 Margarine was invented.
(NW, 9/16/02, p.34D)
1870 Jun 17, George Cormack,
cereal inventor (Wheaties), was born.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1870 William Lyman of the US
invented the home can opener, with a cutting wheel that rolls around
the rim.
(www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story080.htm)
1871 Jan 3, Henry W.
Bradley patented oleomargarine in Binghamton, NY.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1872 Apr 9, Samuel R. Percy
patented dried milk.
(MC, 4/9/02)
1873 Aug, The cannibalized remains
of 5 men were found on the banks of the Gunnison River, Colorado.
Alfred Packer (d.1907), one of a 6-man prospecting party, had emerged
from the area 3 months earlier. Packer was arrested but escaped for 9
years. He then spent 18 years in jail and was paroled in 1901. [see Apr
13, 1883]
(AM, 5/01, p.50)
1874 Jan 11, Gail Borden (b.1801),
inventor of condensed milk, died in Borden, Tx. Epitaph: “I tried and
failed, I tried again and again and succeeded.”
(ON, 5/04, p.5)( www.famoustexans.com/GailBorden.htm)
1875 Dec 17, Violent bread riots
took place in Montreal.
(MC, 12/17/01)
1875 Seth Lewelling of Milwaukie,
Oregon, grew the 1st Bing cherry from the seed of a Republican cherry.
He named it Bing after a Chinese worker on his farm.
(SFC, 4/12/03, p.E3)
1876 Feb 17, Sardines were 1st
canned by Julius Wolff in Eastport, Maine.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1876 Austin and Reuben Hills began
roasting coffee at the Bay City Market in SF. [see 1878]
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.A1)
1876 Jun 5, Bananas became popular
in US following the Centennial Exposition in Phila.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1878 Austin and R.W. Hills founded
Hills Bros. Coffee in SF. [see 1876]
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.C2)
1877 The 1st shipload of frozen
beef was carried to France from Argentina.
(Econ Sp, 12/13/03, p.7)
1877 Pietro Barilla opened a shop
in Parma, Italy, selling bread and pasta. The company left the bread
business in 1952. By 2007 it was the world’s leading pasta maker. In
1999 the Parma pasta factory was closed and converted to the Academia
Barilla, which also housed a library dedicated to gastronomy.
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.75)(Econ, 12/20/08, p.145)
1878 Lyman C. Byce, Petaluma
poultry pioneer, began experimenting with an incubator to hatch baby
chicks.
(Ind, 4/26/03, p.5A)
1879 Feb 27, Constantine Fahlberg
discovered saccharin, an artificial sweetener.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1879 Apr 8, Milk was sold in glass
bottles for the 1st time.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1879 Armour & Co., a Chicago
meat processor founded in the 1860s, introduced canned meats. Canned
condensed milk was introduced in 1912. The “Armour’s Star” trademark
was first used in 1931.
(SFC, 8/2/06, p.G7)
1880 Mar 23, John Stevens of
Neenah, Wis., patented the grain crushing mill. This mill allowed flour
production to increase by 70 percent.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1880 Mar 26, Duncan Hines, US
restaurant guide writer (Out of Kentucky Kitchens), was born.
(HN, 3/25/98)(SS, 3/26/02)
1880 Jul 27, A.P. Abourne patented
a process for refining coconut oil.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1880 B. Manischewitz founded an
operation in Cincinnati to make unleavened bread based on a
5,000-year-old recipe.
(SFC, 9/22/03, p.B4)
1880-1930 The 3rd wave of immigrants arrived in
Hawaii to work on sugar cane and then pineapple plantations owned by
Europeans and Americans. The first workers were Chinese and they were
followed by Japanese, Okinawans, Koreans, Puerto Ricans, Portuguese and
Filipinos.
(SFEM, 2/8/98, p.10,32)
1881 Aug 27, New York state’s Pure
Food Law went into effect to prevent "the adulteration of food or
drugs."
(HN, 8/27/00)
1881 Jul 8, Edward Berner of Two
Rivers, Wisconsin, created the Sundae.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1881 Aug 27, New York state’s Pure
Food Law went into effect to prevent "the adulteration of food or
drugs."
(HN, 8/27/00)
1881 Joseph Brandenstein opened a
coffee company in SF, naming it after his son Michael J. Brandenstein
and Co. The name was later shortened to MJB Inc.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.C2)
1881 William H. Purvis introduced
macadamia nuts to Hawaii.
(www.hawaiiag.org/history.htm)
1882 Feb 15, SS Dunedin left New
Zealand with 1st frozen meat for England.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1882 Mar 25, 1st demonstration of
pancake making was in a NYC Dept store.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1882 Heinz began patenting ketchup
bottles.
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.E4)
1883 Apr 13, Alfred Packer was
convicted of cannibalism. [see Aug, 1873]
(MC, 4/13/02)
1884 Nov 25, John B. Meyenberg of
St. Louis patented evaporated milk.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1885 In Dr. Jacob's pharmacy in
Atlanta, "French coca wine," the future symbol of "the American way of
life" as Coca Cola became known, made its debut [see Mar 29, May 8,
1886].
(AP, 5/3/03)
1885 Jules Harder, 1st chef of the
SF Palace Hotel, authored “The Physiology of Taste: Harder’s Book of
Practical American Cookery.”
(SFC, 9/7/05, p.F4)
1886 Feb 14, California orange
growers ship their first trainload of fruit from Los Angeles.
(HCB, 2003, p.92)
1886 Mar 29, Coca-Cola was
advertised for the first time in the Atlanta Daily. Its inventor, Dr.
John Pemberton, claimed it could cure anything from hysteria to the
common cold. John Stith (Doc) Pemberton, pharmacist, concocted a bath
of a dark, sugary syrup meant to be mixed with carbonated water and
sold at the city’s soda fountains. This was the beginning of Coca Cola,
which then contained enough cocaine to give the a drinker a buzz and
more caffeine than the drink contains today. Sales at the soda fountain
of Jacob‘s Pharmacy averaged 9 drinks a day in the first year. The
story is told by Frederick Allen in his book “Secret Formula.” The
drink was named by Frank Robinson and he created its signature script
logo. [see May 8]
(www.sodamuseum.bigstep.com/generic.jhtml?pid=1)
1886 May 8, Atlanta pharmacist
John Stith Pemberton invented the flavor syrup for Coca-Cola, which
contained cocaine. The name for the soft drink came from his
bookkeeper, Frank Robinson. Sales of Coca-Cola at the soda fountain of
Jacob‘s Pharmacy averaged 9 drinks a day in the first year. [see Mar 29]
(AP, 5/8/97)(HN,
5/8/98)(www.sodamuseum.bigstep.com/generic.jhtml?pid=1)
1886 The beverages Moxie, Dr
Pepper, Coca-Cola [see Mar 29] and Hires Root Beer all appeared in
bottles.
(SFC, 10/7/00, p.B5)
1986 In France Michel Lescanne, in
response to the crises in Ethiopia, founded Nutriset to develop a
product for feeding malnourished children. An initial product met WHO
standards F-75 and F-100 for therapeutic milk products that needed to
be mixed with water. In 1997 he hit upon a peanut-based spread and
called the new product Plumpy’nut.
(WSJ, 4/12/05, p.A14)
1888 Asa Candler purchased the
Coca Cola formula. In 2004 Constance L. Hays authored "The Real thing:
Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company."
(SSFC, 2/22/04, p.M3)
1889 The modern pizza was
reportedly invented by a Neopolitan named Raffaele Esposito. [see 1830]
(SFEC,11/16/97, Z1 p.5)
1889 Chris L. Rutt, a newspaperman
in St. Joseph, Missouri, began working on creating a self-rising
pancake mix. Within a year, he and two associates developed the first
pancake mix ever made. While seeking a name and package design for the
world's first self-rising pancake mix, Rutt saw a vaudeville team known
as Baker and Farrell whose act included Baker singing the catchy song
"Aunt Jemima" dressed as a Southern mammy. Inspired by the wholesome
name and image, Rutt appropriated them both to market his new pancake
mix.
(www.auntjemima.com/aj_history/)
1890 Sep 9, Colonel Harland
Sanders (d.1980), originator of Kentucky Fried Chicken fast-food
restaurants, was born in Henryville, Ind.
(HN, 9/9/98)(www.born-today.com/Today/09-09.htm)
1890 Unable to raise the money to
promote Aunt Jemima pancake mix, Chris L. Rutt and his associates sold
their company to R.T. Davis Mill and Manufacturing Company, which
promoted the new product at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago
in 1893. The company hired Nancy Green (d.1923), a famous
African-American cook born in Montgomery County, Kentucky, to play the
part of Aunt Jemima and demonstrate the pancake mix. In 1917, Aunt
Jemima was redrawn as a smiling, heavy-set black housekeeper with a
bandanna wrapped around her head.
(www.toptags.com/aama/bio/women/ngreen.htm)
1891 George A. Hormel, son of
German immigrants, opened a small retail meat shop in Austin, Minn.
Within months he opened a packinghouse. His son Jay became president in
1929. Their canned ham product, developed in 1926, was named Spam on
Jan 1, 1937, and registered as a trademark on May 11, 1937.
(SFEM, 6/16/96, BR p.26)(WSJ, 4/29/04,
p.D10)(www.hormel.com)
1892 Feb 2, Bottle cap with cork
seal was patented by William Painter in Baltimore.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1892 Jun 18, Macadamia nuts were
1st planted in Hawaii.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1892 The first Fig Newtons were
created.
(SFEC, 10/31/99, Z1 p.2)
1893 Jan 17, Hawaii's monarchy was
overthrown by a group of businessmen and sugar planters under Sanford
Ballard Dole, who forced Queen Lili’uokalani to abdicate and formed the
Republic of Hawaii. This coup occurred with the knowledge of John L.
Stevens, the US Minister to Hawaii, and 300 Marines from the US cruiser
Boston who were called to Hawaii, allegedly to protect American lives.
Queen Lili’uokalani wrote to Pres. Harrison for support. [see Jan
24]
(AP, 1/17/98)(HNPD, 1/25/99)(SFEC, 8/29/99,
p.T11)(MC, 1/17/02)(ON, 11/02, p.6)
1893 Apr 8, The Critic reported
that ice cream soda is the national drink of the US.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1893 Aug 1, Henry Perky and
William Ford patented a machine for making shredded wheat breakfast
cereal.
(HN, 8/1/00)(MC, 8/1/02)
1893 Oct 6, Nabisco Foods invented
Cream of Wheat.
(MC, 10/6/01)
1893 At the Chicago Exposition
Milton Hershey was impressed with an exhibition featuring
chocolate-making machinery from Germany and commented to his cousin,
Frank Snavely, "Caramels are only a fad. Chocolate is a permanent
thing." With that, Hershey decided to go into the chocolate business,
purchasing the German-made machinery and installing it at his Lancaster
Caramel Company in Pennsylvania. With the help of expert chocolate
makers, Hershey was soon producing chocolate-covered caramels, called
"novelties." In 1900, Hershey sold the Lancaster Caramel Company for $1
million, but retained the chocolate-making machinery. Soon thereafter,
he launched the Hershey Chocolate Company and built a town around it,
Hershey, Pennsylvania.
(HNQ, 10/31/00)
1893 F.W. Rueckheim introduced a
confection of popcorn, peanuts and molasses at the Columbian Exposition
in Chicago. It was given the name Cracker Jack in 1896.
(AH, 10/04, p.71)
1893 The first electric bread
toasters were made in England about this time.
(SFC, 1/23/08, p.G4)
1894 Milton Hershey (1857-1945)
founded Hershey Foods in Pennsylvania. He built an industrial town near
where he was born and named it after himself.
(WSJ, 7/26/02, p.B1)(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.D1)(Econ,
3/24/07, p.18)
1895 Nov 26, Hawaiian Sugar
Planters Assn. formed.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1895-1942 The Hagiwara Family operated the Japanese
Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. In 1914 Makoto Hagiwara introduced the
fortune cookie.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)(SFC, 9/7/05, p.F4)
1896 Feb 23, Tootsie Roll was
introduced by Leo Hirschfield.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1896 Jun 30, W.S. Hadaway patented
an electric stove.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1896 Aug 29, The Chinese-American
dish chop suey was invented in New York City by the chef to visiting
Chinese Ambassador Li Hung-chang.
(AP, 8/29/97)
1896 F.W. Rueckheim & Brother
of Chicago received a trademark for "Cracker Jack." The popcorn and
peanuts covered with molasses syrup sold for a nickel a box in 1899.
(HFA, ‘96, p.67)(SFC, 7/29/98, p.)(SFC, 7/29/98, Z1
p.23)(AH, 10/01, p.34)
1897 In Le Roy, New York, Pearle
Wait, a carpenter, and his wife May, made a concoction of gelatin and
fruit flavor that they named Jell-O.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.A2)
1898 Angelo Giurlani founded Star
Fine Foods. His family ran Star Olive Oil in the Lucca district of
Tuscany.
(SFC, 12/17/02, p.A23)
1898 A Campbell Soup executive
admired the red-and-white colors of the Cornell football team and
adopted them for Campbell Soup.
(SFC, 1/8/00, p.B4)
1899 Aug 8, The first household
refrigerating machine was patented.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, Z1 p.8)(HN, 8/8/00)
1899 Sep 6, Carnation processed
its 1st can of evaporated milk.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1899 In Le Roy, New York, Pearle
Wait, a carpenter, and his wife May, sold their formula for Jell-O for
$450 to neighbor Orator Frank Woodward.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.A2)
1899 In New Orleans Oysters
Rockefeller was invented at Antoine's restaurant.
(SFEM, 6/14/98, p.8)
1899 The American Rice Food and
Manufacturing Co. of New Jersey established a copyright for an
advertising doll for Cook's Flaked Rice.
(SFC, 3/11/98, Z1 p.5)
1899 Oakland Preserving Co. and 17
other firms combined to form the California Fruit Canners Association.
They adopted the Del Monte brand name. In 1916-17 the canner’s
association called itself Calpak and started advertising the Del Monte
brand.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.B1)(SSFC, 10/3/04, p.J1)
1900 Jul 28, The hamburger was
created by Louis Lassing in Connecticut.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1902 Jun 9, The 1st Automat
restaurant opened at 818 Chestnut Street, Phila.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1902 Aug 23, Fanny Farmer, among
the first to emphasize the relationship of diet to health, opened her
School of Cookery in Boston.
(HN, 8/23/00)
1902 Caleb Bradham launched the
Pepsi-Cola Co. from the backroom of his pharmacy in New Bern, N.C. He
was awarded the Pepsi-Cola trademark in 1903. [see Jun 16, 1903]
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.B2)
1902 The New Jersey Ralston Health
Club run by Webster Edgerley merged with Purina Mills, a food
manufacturer run by Will Danforth, to form the Ralston-Purina Co.
Ralston Breakfast Food had been manufactured by Purina and its success
led to the merger.
(Arch, 5/04, p.32)
1902 Auguste Escoffier
(1846-1935), French chef, authored “Le Guide Culinaire,” a collection
of some 5,000 recipes.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.141)
1903 May 5, James Beard (d.1985),
US culinary expert, author (Delights & Prejudices), was born in
Portland, Ore.
(http://members.localnet.com/~jgeorge/jbeard.htm)
1903 Jun 16, Pepsi Cola company
formed. [see 1902]
(MC, 6/16/02)
1903 Sep 22, Italo Marchioni
applied for a patent for pastry cornets to hold ice cream and was
granted the patent on Dec 13, 1903. Ice cream cones were popularized in
the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
(HN, 5/2/98)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.B7)(MC, 9/22/01)(SSFC,
10/5/03, p.C3)
1903 Dec 13, Italo Marconi
received a patent for the ice cream cone in NJ. [see Sep 22, 1903]
(MC, 12/13/01)(SSFC, 10/5/03, p.C3)
1904 Apr 30, At 1:06 p.m.
President Theodore Roosevelt officially opened the St. Louis World’s
Fair commemorating the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase. Although
the Fair was originally scheduled to open in 1903, the opening was
delayed for a year while the elaborate fairgrounds were completed.
Visitors were awed by 142 miles of exhibits shown in palatial buildings
like Festival Hall the centerpiece of the fair boasting an auditorium
seating 3,500 and the largest pipe organ in the world. Other wonders
seen at the St. Louis World’s Fair were the Liberty Bell, ice cream
cones. Food vendors, Arnold Fornachou (ice cream) and Ernest Hamwi
(sweet, rolled wafers), collaborated for the ice cream cones. In 1903
Italo Marconi received a patent for pastry cornets to hold ice cream.
Charles Menches sold ice cream at the fair and an anonymous Syrian sold
the zalabia pastry in the next booth.
(HN, 5/2/98)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.B7)(SFC, 6/24/00, p.B3)
1904 Apr 30, The St. Louis World’s
Fair popularized the all-American hamburger. The fair lasted 7 months
and inspired the phrase "Meet Me in St. Louis." Cass Gilbert designed
the art museum in Foret park, the only building left over from the
fair. At the Louisiana Purchase Exposition the temperatures in St.
Louis soared and hot-tea vendor Richard Blechynden began pouring his
tea over ice thus the invention of iced-tea. The fair popularized
sausage in a bun, the hot dog with prepared mustard and the ice cream
cone.
(SFC, 8/18/96, Z1 p.2)(SFEC, 11/17/96, Par
p.19)(SFC, 10/12/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 4/19/98, Z1 p.8)(SSFC, 10/5/03, p.C3)
1904 Although invented in Waco,
Texas in the 1880s, Dr Pepper first received national exposure at the
St. Louis World‘s Fair.
(HNQ, 10/25/00)
1904 Jul 23, By some accounts, the
ice cream cone was invented by Charles E. Menches during the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. [see Sep 22, 1903]
(AP, 7/23/99)
1905 Frank W. Epperson (1804-1983)
invented the Popsicle on a cold night in San Francisco. In 1923
Epperson remembered his frozen soda water mixture and began a business
producing Epsicles in seven fruit flavors.
(www.icecreamusa.com/popsicle/history/)
1906 Feb 19, W.K. Kellogg & Ch
Bolin incorporated the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co. Will Kellogg
spent 2/3 of the company budget to advertise Corn Flakes.
(SFC, 11/16/96, p.E4)(ON, 2/05, p.10)
1906 Jun 30, The Pure Food and
Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act became law.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(AP, 6/29/99)
1906 Jul 14, Tom Carvel, ice cream
mogul (Carvels), was born.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1906 C&H Sugar took over a
waterfront mill in Crockett, Ca.
(SSFC, 8/31/03, p.I3)
1906 The Louisiana McIlhenny
family were awarded a trademark for the word Tabasco, which was also
the name of their popular pepper sauce.
(WSJ, 10/9/07, p.D11)
1907 Jul 16, Orville Redenbacher,
agronomist and popcorn entrepreneur, was born in Brazil, Indiana. "Do
one thing and do it better than anyone."
(AH, 10/01, p.36)(AP, 7/16/07)
1907 Milton Hershey, chocolate
tycoon, opened Hershey Park, an admission-free amusement park in
Hershey, Pa.
(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.D6)
1908 Jul 3, M.F.K. Fisher
(d.1992), food writer, was born.
(www.foodreference.com/html/html/july3.html)
1908 The Hydrox cookie was
created by a company that became Sunshine Biscuits Inc. Keebler
acquired Sunshine in 1996 and Kellogg acquired Keebler in 2001. In 2003
Kellogg stopped making the Hydrox cookie.
(WSJ, 1/19/08, p.A10)
1909 Harry V. Warehime established
Hanover Pretzel Company in Pennsylvania with a single recipe, Hanover
Olde Tyme Pretzels.
(http://factorytoursusa.com/full.htm)
1911 Aug 15, Procter and Gamble
unveiled its Crisco shortening.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1911 Dinuba, Ca., began hosting a
raisin festival.
(SFC, 9/18/03, p.A10)
1911 Quaker Oats bought the Great
Western Cereal Co., maker of Mothers Oats. Great Western of Akron,
Ohio, had owned the brand since 1901.
(SFC, 1/16/08, p.G4)
1912 Mar 23, Dixie Cup was
invented.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1912 Aug 15, Julia Child (d.2004),
American chef and television personality, was born as Julia Carolyn
McWilliams in Pasadena, Calif. Her 90th B-day party was held in SF on
Aug 1, 2002.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, BR p.5)(SFC, 10/20/99, Z1p.4)(HN,
8/15/00)(SFCM, 9/1/02, p.33)
1912 Prizes were added to boxes of
Cracker Jacks.
(www.tias.com/mags/cjca/cjcahistory.htm)(AH, 10/01,
p.34)
1912 National Biscuit, later
Nabisco, came up with the Oreo cookie.
(WSJ, 1/19/08, p.A10)
1913 Brillo pads were introduced.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.B4)
1914 Mother’s Cake & Cookie
Co. was founded in Oakland, Ca., by N.M. Wheatley, a newspaper vendor.
After a series of owners the firm was sold in 2005 to Catterton
Partners, a private equity firm. In 2006 Catterton announced the
closure of the Oakland bakery and distribution sites. In 2008 Catterton
sought bankruptcy protection for Mother’s Cookies.
(SFC, 2/28/98, p.D1)(SFC, 4/4/06, p.C3)(SFC,
10/9/08, p.C1)
1915 Jan 15, Fannie Farmer
(b.1857), American culinary expert, died. Her “Boston Cooking-School
Cook Book” (1896) became a widely used culinary text.
(WSJ, 12/29/07,
p.W8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Merritt_Farmer)
1915 The Frigerator electric food
cooler was introduced by Guardian.
(SFC, 12/29/99, Z1 p.1)
1916 Jul 4, Nathan’s Famous Hot
Dogs opened a stand at Brooklyn’s Coney Island and held an eating
contest as a publicity stunt that became an annual event.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A3)
1917 Columbus Salame was founded
in San Francisco. In 1967 its Salami making operation was moved to
South San Francisco.
(SFC, 7/24/09, p.D2)
1918 Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo
first appeared on Cracker Jack boxes.
(AH, 10/04, p.71)
1920 Sep 4, Craig Claiborne, food
critic, food columnist (NY Times Cookbook) and cookbook author, was
born.
(HN, 9/4/00)(MC, 9/4/01)
1920 Henry Burt created the "Good
Humor Bar," a chocolate covered ice cream bar on a stick, in
Youngstown, Ohio. Good Humor trucks cruised America's streets until
1976 and the company merged with Breyer's Ice Cream in 1993.
(SFEC,10/19/97, Z1 p.2)(WSJ, 7/16/99, p.W12)
1920 Walter Knott (d.1981) first
rented a berry patch in Buena Park, Ca., that he turned into a family
attraction called Knott's Berry Place. The farm later made famous the
"Boysen berry," named after Rudolph Boysen, a parks superintendent who
had crossed blackberry, red raspberry and loganberry plants.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A20)
1920 Arthur Perdue began a
backyard egg business in Maryland. His son Frank (1920-2005) later
turned it into one of the nation's largest poultry processors.
(AP, 4/1/05)(SFC, 4/2/05, p.B5)
1921 May 17, Pres. Harding opened
the 1st Valencia Orange Show via telephone.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1921 The Minneapolis-based
Washburn Crosby (later General Mills), purveyors of Gold Medal Flour,
invented Betty Crocker to serve as a public image food expert. In 2005
Susan Marks authored “Finding Betty Crocker.”
(WSJ, 12/30/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/25/05, p.W10)
1921 White Castle, the world’s
first hamburger chain, originated in Wichita, Kansas.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, Par p.19)
1922 Jan 24, Christian K. Nelson
of Onawa, Iowa, patented the Eskimo Pie.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1922 Feb 18, Pres. Harding signed
the Capper-Volstead Act. It exempted farmers from federal antitrust
laws permitting them to share prices and orchestrate supply.
(WSJ, 9/26/06,
p.B1)(www.uwcc.wisc.edu/info/capper.html)
1922 Vegemite, a salty, slightly
bitter spread made from brewer's yeast, was introduced by Australian
chemist Cyril Callister for the Fred Walker Cheese Company in
Melbourne. The company wanted a Vitamin B-rich spread that could
compete with Britain's popular Marmite. The name came in a 1923
national poll. In 2009 Kraft Foods Australia announced that a creamier
variation of Vegemite would be on store shelves July 5 alongside the
original.
(AP, 6/15/09)
1923 The Chocolate Manufacturers
Association was founded.
(WSJ, 11/25/03, p.B10)
1924 Jan 29, An ice cream cone
rolling machine was patented by Carl Taylor in Cleveland.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1925 The Michelin Guide introduced
its star system for hotels and restaurants.
(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.W5)
1925 Franz Colruyt, Belgian baker,
set up a wholesale business importing coffee and spices from overseas.
In 2002 the 160th Colruyt store opened in Belgium.
(WSJ, 9/22/03, p.R3)
1925 Ernest Van Tassel leases 75
acres on Round Top in Honolulu (Nut Ridge) and began a macadamia nut
orchard, Hawaii's first macadamia nut farm.
(www.hawaiiag.org/history.htm)
1926 Nov 5, Webster Edgerly
(b.1852), head of the New Jersey-based Ralston Health movement and
co-founder of Ralston Purina, died.
(Arch, 5/04, p.35)
1926 The Aunt Jemima Mills Co. was
purchased by the Quaker Oats Company of Chicago.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima)
1927 Pez candy originated in
Austria as a breath mint for cigarette smokers. The name came from
"pfefferminz," the word for peppermint in German. The line was
imported to the United States in 1952, when the company decided it
could do better with fruit candy dispensed by plastic toys.
(SFEC, 4/5/98,
p.C11)(http://money.cnn.com/2002/06/13/pf/q_pez/)
1928 Mar 30, Petaluma farmers
shipped 58 carloads of eggs by train to SF. 50,000 cases contained some
18 million eggs.
(Ind, 4/26/03, p.5A)
1928 Walter E. Diemer (23), an
accountant for Fleer Chewing Gum in Philadelphia, began testing recipes
for a gum base. He invented the first batch of bubble gum, making it
pink because that was the only shade of food coloring on hand. It was
sold under the Dubble Bubble name for a penny.
(SFC, 1/13/98, p.A19)(SFC, 8/2/99, p.A22)
1928 The ice cream and oatmeal
cookie sandwich called "It’s-It" was invented at Playland-at-the-Beach
by owner George Whitney. The made-to-order It’s It sandwich was a
disk of vanilla ice-cream between 2 oatmeal cookies dipped in melted
chocolate. The trademark was acquired by Jamal’s Enterprises in 1974.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)(SFC, 5/20/98, Z1 p.3)
1928 Coca-Cola began sales in
Africa. By 2008 Coca Cola claimed to be the largest private sector
employee in Africa.
(Econ, 7/5/08, p.58)
1929 Mar 26, The SFC reported that
a test shipment of California juice grapes was on its way to the
Orient. Grapes were packed in a new way that would allow them to stay
frozen for a year.
(SFC, 3/26/04, p.F7)
1929 Ernest Van Tassel negotiates
with Bishop Estate to obtain 100 acres of land in Keahoe Mauka for
planting more than 7000 macadamia nut trees resulting in the first
macadamia nut farm on the island of Hawaii.
(www.hawaiiag.org/history.htm)
1930 Mar 6, Clarence Birdseye of
Brooklyn developed a method for quick freezing food.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1930 Apr 6, Hostess Twinkies were
invented by bakery executive James Dewar.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1930 Aug 4, Michael Cullen
introduced King Kullen in Queens, NYC, the 1st US supermarket.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.C1)
1930 Ocean Spray was founded by 3
cranberry growers. In 1963 it launched its juices.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.123)
1930 In Philadelphia, Pa., Pat’s
King of Steak’s opened at Ninth and Passyunk Ave. They helped make
famous the Philadelphia cheese steak sandwich.
(SSFC, 9/17/06, p.G5)
1930 Futurist poet, Filippo
Tommaso Marinetti denounced pasta as obsolete and urged Italians to try
more avant-garde combinations like cooked salami sauced in espresso and
spiked with eau de Cologne.
(WSJ, 12/29/95, p.A-11)
1930s The Depression era "Eau
Claire" system set milk prices according to the distance from Eau
Claire, Wisconsin, to ensure that every region of the country
maintained a local supply of fresh milk.
(SFC, 11/17/99, p.A12)
1931 May 22, Canned rattlesnake
meat 1st went on sale in Florida.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1931 Oct 2, Aerial circus star
Clyde Pangborn and playboy Hugh Herndon, Jr. set off in Miss Veedol to
complete the first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean from
Sabishiro Beach in Misawa City, Japan. A young boy gave Panghorn 5
apples from Misawa City.
(HN, 10/2/99)(ON, 1/03, p.10)
1931 Oct 3, Clyde Pangborn and
Hugh Herndon, Jr. belly landed Miss Veedol, a Bellanca CH-200
monoplane, in Wenatchee, Wa., to complete the first nonstop flight
across the Pacific Ocean from Japan. They won a $25,000 prize from the
Japanese Ashi Shimbun newspaper. Panghorn sent apple cuttings from
Wenatchee's Richard Delicious apples to Japan which were soon
distributed across Japan.
(ON, 1/03, p.10)
1931 Ernest Van Tassel establishes
a macadamia nut processing factory on Puhukaina Street in Kakaako; nuts
sold as Van's macadamia nuts.
(www.hawaiiag.org/history.htm)
1934 Clarence Birdseye, since
there were no freezer cases in grocery stores, entered a joint venture
to manufacture them. National distribution of frozen foods became a
reality in 1944 when Birdseye began leasing refrigerated railroad cars
to transport his products. Birdseye's innovations led to the founding
of General Foods Co.
(HNPD, 12/9/98)
1935 Jan 24, The 1st canned beer,
"Krueger Cream Ale," was sold by Krueger Brewing Co.
(MC, 1/24/02)
1935 Kentucky Gov. Ruby Laffoon,
enjoyed the fried chicken of Harland Sanders so much that she named
Sanders a Kentucky Colonel.
(Econ, 8/27/05, p.62)
1935 Tyson Foods was founded. By
2002 the company was the world’s largest processor and marketer of
beef, chicken and pork.
(WSJ, 6/24/02, p.A2)
1935 Giuseppe Luigi Mezetta and
his son Daniel Joseph Mezetta (1916-2005) founded G.L. Mezetta,
importer of Italian specialty foods that included glass-packed peppers
and olives. The firm was originally based at the SF Produce Market.
(SFC, 3/26/05, p.B4)
1937 Jan 1, At a party at the
Hormel Mansion in Minnesota, a guest won $100 for naming a new canned
meat-Spam.
(HN, 1/1/00)
1937 May 11, Spam, a canned ham by
Hormel, was registered as a trademark.
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.D10)
1937 Vernon Rudolph (d.1973)
launched Krispy Creme, a donut operation, in Winston-Salem, NC. Heirs
sold the business to Beatrice Foods, which changed the recipe. Some 20
franchisees bought the company in 1982. the 1st shop outside the
Southeast opened in Indianapolis in 1995. The company went public in
2000.
(WSJ, 9/3/04, p.A5)
1937 General Mills introduced Kix
cereal. It was made possible by the development of the “puffing gun”
invented by Lester Borchardt Sr. (1907-2007).
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.A6)
1938 Feb 16, The US Federal Crop
Insurance program was authorized.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1938 Jul 24, Instant coffee was
invented. Nestle came up with the first instant coffee after 8 years of
experiments.
(SFEC, 2/7/99, Z1 p.8)(MC, 7/24/02)
1938 The Food, Drug and Cosmetics
Act included a restriction on the sale of embedded non-food items,
unless there’s a functional value, like the stick on a lollipop.
(WSJ, 6/24/02, p.A8)
1938 David Reid (d.2003 at 86)
created the image of Elsie the Cow for the Borden milk company. Elsie's
web site is at: www.elsie.com.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.A25)
1938 Inventor Earl Silas Tupper
left the Du Pont company in 1938 to form the Tupper Plastics Company.
The material called "Poly-T" used to create Tupperware was developed
from a black, putrid, rock-hard oil refining waste product called
polyethylene slag. He refined and purified the slag into a higher
quality plastic. He then turned his attention to replacing the widely
used glass and metal food containers with his waterproof and airtight
seal introduced in 1947. [see 1939]
(HNQ, 2/13/99)
1939 Apr 30, The New York World’s
Fair, billed as a look at "the world of tomorrow," officially opened.
NY Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia mandated that the city's nude dancers cover
up during the fair. The cover-up evolved into the G-string and later
the thong. The General Motors exhibit was titled Futurama. Philo T.
Farnsworth premiered his television at the fair. AT&T presented its
first Picture Phone at the World's Fair. Salvador Dali created a
pavilion that was called “Dream of Venus” and described as the “funny
house of tomorrow.” In 2000 Miles Beller authored "Dream of Venus (Or
Living Pictures): A Novel of the 1939 New York world’s Fair." National
Presto Industries introduced the home pressure cooker at the fair.
(AP, 4/30/97)(WSJ, 6/7/99, p.A8)(SFEC, 4/16/00, BR
p.7)(NYTBR, 2/2/03, p.20) (www.imdb.com/title/tt0149460/trivia)(WSJ,
12/27/08, p.A7)
1939 May 16, US food stamps were
1st issued.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1939 Jun 11, King & Queen of
England tasted their 1st "hot dogs" at FDR's party.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1939 Jim Rex founded the Ranger
Joe Breakfast Food Co. in Philadelphia. It was sold in the 1940s to
Philadelphia businessman Moses Berger and sold again in 1954 to Nabisco
and renamed "Wheat and Rice Honeys."
(SFC,11/19/97, Z1 p.7)
1939 The Toastolator Co., a
subsidiary of Crocker-Wheeler, began making the conveyer belt
Toast-o-Lator toasters. Production continued to 1952.
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.G6)
1939 Earl Tupper (d.1983), a
Massachusetts tree surgeon and inventor, founded Tupperware. In 1942 he
introduced a polyethylene container with a fitted cap. The containers
took off in 1951 when he hired Brownie Wise (d.1992), a secretary from
Detroit, who developed a sales network based on patio parties. Tupper
forced Wise out in 1958 and sold the company to Rexall Drugs. [see 1938]
(WSJ, 2/18/04, p.A9)
1940 Jan 8, Britain began
rationing sugar, meat and butter.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1940 The Mountain Dew beverage, a
lemon-lime mixer, was trademarked by Barney and Ally Hartman of
Knoxville, Tenn. In 1948 a cartoon drawing of Willy the Hillbilly was
trademarked and used on bottles until the early 1970s. Pepsi bought
Mountain Dew in 1964.
(SFC, 6/25/08, p.G3)
1941 Apr 19, Michel Roux, chef de
cuisine, was born.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1941 May 1, General Mills
introduced Cheerioats, later renamed Cheerios. It was made possible by
the development of the “puffing gun” invented earlier by Lester
Borchardt Sr.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheerios)(WSJ,
1/27/07, p.A6)
1941 May 19, Jane Brody, food and
health writer, was born.
(HN, 5/19/01)
1941 The US Army asked Prof. Ancel
Keys (1904-2004) of the Univ. of Minnesota to help develop an army
ration that soldiers could carry in combat. His package was called the
K ration.
(SFC, 11/24/04, p.B6)
1941 Carl Karcher (1917-2008), an
Ohio-born farm boy, bought a hot-dog stand in southern California and
soon expanded to 3 stands and then a drive-in barbecue joint called
Carl’s. In 1956 he opened his first two Carl’s Jr. fast-food burger
outlets, which were among the first to later offer salad bars and
grilled-chicken sandwiches. By 2008 there were 1,121 Carl’s Jr.
restaurants in the US and 3,036 franchised or company-operated
restaurants world-wide.
(WSJ, 1/19/08, p.A10)
1942 May 4, The U.S. began food
rationing.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1942 May 5, Sales of sugar resumed
in the United States under a rationing program.
(AP, 5/5/97)(HN, 5/5/98)
1942 Nov 29, Coffee rationing went
into effect in the U.S., and lasted until the next summer.
(http://tinyurl.com/yccxgv)
1942 The founders of Wing Nien
dubbed their soy sauce Longevity. It was 1st fermented in the basement
of an old bank in San Francisco's Chinatown.
(SFC, 10/11/03, p.B1)
1943 Jan 12, Frankfurters were
replaced by Victory Sausages, a mix of meat & soy meal.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1943 Mar 29, World War II meat,
butter and cheese rationing began.
(AP, 3/29/97)
1943 May 1, Food rationing began
in US. [see Mar 29]
(MC, 5/1/02)
1943 May 29, Meat and cheese began
to be rationed in US.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1943 Jul 28, President Roosevelt
announced the end of coffee rationing.
(AP, 7/28/97)
1944 May 25, Robert Michael
Payton, pizza magnate, was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1944 Jeno Paulucci (b.1918),
American food entrepreneur, started his Chun King business with a loan
of $2,500. Less than 2 decades later he sold it to R. J. Reynolds for
$63 million. In 1985 he sold his Jeno pizza roll business to General
Mills for $150 million.
(SSFC, 12/24/06, p.F2)
1944 The Vegan Society was founded
in England. Vegans generally limit their diets to vegetables, fruits,
nuts, and grains.
(www.ivu.org/history/societies/vegansocuk.html)
1945 Oct 13, Milton Hershey
(b.1857), Philadelphia chocolate tycoon, died. In 2005 Michael D.
Antonio authored “Hershey: Milton S. Hershey’s Extraordinary Life of
Wealth, Empire and Utopian Dreams.”
(WSJ, 8/12/99,
p.A1)(www.hersheyhistory.com/milton.html)
1945 Nov 23, Most US wartime
rationing of foods, including meat and butter, was set to expire by
day's end.
(HN, 11/23/98)(AP, 11/23/07)
1946 The US Agricultural Marketing
Act of this year established grade standards for fruits and vegetables
including peanuts.
(http://tinyurl.com/qjuu2)
1946 David Barham (1913-1991)
founded Hot Dog on a Stick at Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, Ca.
(WSJ, 2/3/07,
p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Barham)
1946 Ray Dunlap, a chemist for
Idaho’s J.R. Simplot, invented a way to make frozen french fries that
wouldn’t turn soggy.
(WSJ, 10/7/04, p.A12)
1947 Pres. Truman raised margin
requirements of futures to 33% as wartime controls ended and food
prices soared.
(Econ, 10/11/08, SR p.16)
1947 The new Florida Foods Co.
changed its name to Minute Maid. Their initial powder orange juice
proved more drinkable as a juice concentrate. Founder John Fox hired
Bing Crosby as his 1st spokesman.
(SFC, 1/20/03, p.B4)
1947 Walter S. Mack, president of
Pepsi-Cola, hired an all-black sales force led by Edward F. Boyd to
sell Pepsi directly to blacks.
(WSJ, 1/9/07, p.B1)
1947 Britain amid post-war
rationing and food shortages introduced the snoek, a relative of the
barracuda, to a hungry nation.
(Econ, 11/1/08, p.66)
1948 Idaho put “World Famous
Potatoes” on its car license plates. Its potato business was mostly due
to the efforts of J.R. Simplot (1909-2008), later known as the spud
king of America.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._Simplot)(Econ,
6/14/08, p.105)
1948 Henry (d.1976) and Esther
(1920-2006) Snyder opened In-N-Out Burgers in Baldwin Park, LA County.
They numbered 152 stores in 2001 as their 1st SF outlet opened. By 2006
the chain numbered 202 restaurants. In 2009 Stacy Perman authored
“In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-The Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That
Breaks All the Rules.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.D1)(SFC, 8/15/01, p.B1)(SFEC,
3/23/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/12/06, p.A6)(WSJ, 4/15/09, p.A13)
1948 Burt Baskin (1913-1967) and
Irvine Robbins (1917-2008) combined their ice cream parlors in Glendale
and Pomona, Ca., to form the Baskins-Robbins ice cream chain.
(WSJ, 5/10/08,
p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Baskin)
1948 Earle Swenson opened his 1st
ice cream store at Hyde and Union streets in SF. In 1980 Swenson’s Ice
Cream Co. was sold to Red River Resources of Phoenix.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.F9)
1949 The Pillsbury Bake-Off began
as a contest for Americans with a knack for home cooking. In 1998 Ellie
Matthews won a Pillsbury million dollar prize for her salsa couscous
chicken. In 2008 Matthews authored “The Ungarnished Truth.”
(WSJ, 3/22/08, p.W10)
1950 May 13, Diner's Club
issued its 1st credit cards.
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)
1950s Cannibalism was banned in
Papua New Guinea.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A6)
1950s Panama disease obliterated
the Gros Michel variety of bananas. It was replaced by the Cavendish.
Most edible bananas do not have seeds and are sprouted from shoots of
original trees that date back 10,000 years.
(SFC, 4/5/04, p.D5)
1951 Feb 26, Bread rationing began
in Czechoslovakia.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1951 Apr 5, In San Francisco the
first fully separate food section made its Chronicle debut.
(SSFC, 6/7/09, p.W3)
1952 Topps Chewing Gum Company
issued its first large set of baseball cards. They included team logos
and facsimile signatures and were later considered as the first true
set of the modern era. Topps had issued a smaller card in 1951, but it
flopped.
(AH, 6/03, p.52,54)
1952 Kraft Foods introduced Cheese
Whiz.
(WSJ, 6/9/07, p.A6)
1952 Alvin Edlin (1912-2008)
bought Bud’s Ice Cream store in Noe Valley from his cousin Bud
Scheideman for $8,000. Revenue at the time was about $30,000. He
increased the quality and by 1976 revenues rose to about $1 million. In
1980 Edlin sold the operation to a group of Bay Area businessmen. In
the 1990s the operation was sold to Berkeley Farms.
(SFC, 6/10/08, p.B5)
1952 The first Weber grill was
made in by George Stephen (d.1993) of suburban Chicago and was called
George's Barbecue. It was manufactured by Weber Brothers Metal Works in
Chicago. Stephen started selling his Weber kettle in 1954 and the rest
is grilling history.
(www.hgtv.com/hgtv/ah_entertaining_outdoor/article/0,1801,HGTV_3117_1398364,00.html)
1953 Mar 8, Census indicated
239,000 farmers gave up farming in last 2 years.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1953 Dec, Swanson and Sons
introduced the TV Dinner. The turkey, sweet potatoes and peas package
was priced at 98 cents and could be cooked in 25 minutes. It was
invented by Gerry Thomas (d.2005), a salesman for Nebraska based C.A.
Swanson, following an oversupply of turkey from the 1953 Thanksgiving
holiday season. Campbell Soup acquired control of Swanson’s in 1955.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.943,952)(WSJ, 1/7/04, p.B1)(SFC,
7/21/05, p.B7)
1953 A chemist working for J.R.
Simplot, Idaho potato mogul, perfected a technique of freezing chipped
potatoes. By the late 1960s Jack Simplot was the largest supplier of
French fries to McDonald’s.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.105)
1954 May 5, The largest store in
the Safeway chain opened at Duboce and Market in SF.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.F10)
1954 Jul 3, Food rationing ended
in Britain almost nine years after the end of World War II.
(HN, 7/3/98)
1954 James Whitman McLamore
(1926-1996) and Dave Edgarton opened Insta Burger King in Miami, the
forerunner to the international Burger King chain.
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.A20)
1954 The WSJ described the new
fish sticks as "boneless oblongs roughly four inches long."
(WSJ, 1/7/04, p.B1)
1955 Apr 15, Ray Kroc acquired the
McDonald’s chain of fast food restaurants. He was a food service
equipment salesman who owned the national marketing rights to the
milk-shake mixers used at the chain. He purchased the chain from
Richard (d.1998 at 89) and Maurice McDonald (d.1971) who started the
operation in California in 1948. Kroc built his first restaurant in Des
Plains, Illinois, and later established his world headquarters and a
company museum there.
(WSJ, 5/30/97, p.A1)(HN, 4/15/98)(SFC, 7/15/98,
p.A20)
1955 Jun, Gordon Wasson, a
vice-president of J.P. Morgan, traveled to Mexico and became one of the
first outsiders to eat the hallucinogenic psilocybin mushroom.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.78)
1955 Toshiba introduced the
world’s first automatic electric rice cooker. In 2006 Mitsubishi
introduced an upscale rice cooker selling for $1000.
(WSJ, 6/4/07, p.A12)
1956 William Mitchell (1912-2004)
patented Pop Rocks, an exploding candy. It hit the market in 1975.
(SFC, 7/29/04, p.B7)
1957 Apr 27, Mario A. Gianini,
creator of the maraschino cherry, died.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1957 Jul 8, William Cadbury (89),
chocolate maker, died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1957 Life magazine printed R.
Gordon Wasson’s “Seeking the Magic Mushroom” detailing his experiences
at a religious ritual in Mexico. Wasson, a vice-president of J.P.
Morgan, experienced the hallucinogenic psilocybin mushroom during a
trip to Mexico in 1955.
(WSJ, 7/11/06, p.B10)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.78)
1957 Ben Eisenstadt, founder of
Cumberland Packaging Corp., with his son Marvin and chemist Paul
Kracauer developed an artificial sweetener that was initially geared
toward diabetics. The formula later became known as Sweet’N Low. In
2006 Rich Cohen authored “Sweet and Low: A Family History.”
(SSFC, 4/23/06, p.M6)
1958 Aug 25, Momofuku Ando (48),
head of Japan’s Nissin Food Products, announced that he had finally
perfected his flash-frying method and therefore invented the instant
noodle.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momofuku_Ando)
1958 US Congress banned futures
trading in onions to stop speculation on prices.
(Econ, 10/11/08, SR p.16)
1958 Al Lapin Jr. (d.2004) and
younger brother Jerry Lapin founded the Int’l. House of Pancakes (IHOP)
with a single outlet at Toluca Lake in LA County. Lapin left IHOP in
1973.
(SFC, 6/21/04, p.B4)
1958 The SF Golden Grain pasta
company introduced the SF treat "Rice-A-Roni." The company was owned by
the DeDomenico family, who learned the recipe from Armenian neighbors.
A 15th century Damascus cookbook titled "Kitab al-Tibakha" included a
recipe that said "brown noodles in the oven and cook them with rice."
Golden Grain was later headquartered in San Leandro, Ca.
(SFC, 11/25/98, Z1 p.5)
1958 Arnold Gridley (d.2004),
invented the motorized cable car after buying and converting some old
SF California Street cable cars. The cars were used in 1961 Rice-A-Roni
commercials. Gridley was the great grandson of G.W. Gridley, sheep
rancher, rice farmer, and founder of Gridley, Ca.
(SFC, 5/15/04, p.B6)
1958 In Fair Lawn, New Jersey, a
new Nabisco bakery opened.
(WSJ, 11/22/08, p.W4)
1958 The aluminum can was
introduced as a food container.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.C1)
1959 Sep 11, The US Congress
passed a bill authorizing food stamps for poor Americans.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1959 In Chicago Kikkoman first
introduced soy sauce to American consumers at an International Trade
Fair.
(Econ, 4/11/09, p.68)
1960 Jun 30, US stopped sugar
imports from Cuba.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1960 Jul 22, Cuba nationalized all
US owned sugar factories.
(MC, 7/22/02)
1960 Wilbur Hardee (1917-2008),
opened his first Hardee’s restaurant, in Greenville, NC. The company
went public in 1963.
(SFC, 6/24/08, p.B5)(http://tinyurl.com/6ztal8)
1960 George Leonard Herter
(1911-1994), Minnesota-born catalogue writer, published his “Bull Cook
and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices.” Herter was later
considered the prince of fantasy food historians.
(http://tinyurl.com/4lgjf)(www.archeryarchives.com/herterhistory.html)
1960s Big Top peanut butter
produced a glass mug to hold its product with a picture of Hopalong
Cassidy, the old singing cowboy star.
(SFC, 2/18/98, Z1 p.3)
1960s Tin-lined cans and tin foil
yielded to aluminum cans and aluminum foil.
(NH, 7/02, p.35)
1961 Mar 18, The "Poppin' Fresh"
Pillsbury Dough Boy was introduced.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1961 May 22, The 1st revolving
restaurant, Top of The Needle in Seattle, opened.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1961 Calisto Tanzi dropped out of
university to concentrate on the a family delicatessen business near
the Parma railway station: Calisto Tanzi & Sons - Salamis and
Preserves. In 1966 Calisto Tanzi adopted the new ultra-high temperature
(UHT) Swedish pasteurizing technique to produce long-life milk. In 2003
the company filed for bankruptcy.
(WSJ, 12/22/03, p.A6)(WPR, 3/04, p.18)
1962 Edwin Traisman (1915-2007),
food researcher for McDonald’s, patented a method for preparing frozen
French fried potatoes. In 1968 his associate Ken Strong patented a
method for quick frying cut potatoes before freezing along with a short
steam blanch to preserve sugars and other flavors. Traisman was
instrumental in the development of Cheese Whiz for Kraft Foods and had
bought the first McDonald’s franchise in Madison, Wis., in the late
1950s.
(SFC, 6/9/07, p.B6)
1964 Jan 22, World's largest
cheese (15,723 kg) was manufactured in Wisconsin.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1964 Feb 7, Baskin-Robbins
introduced Beatle Nut ice cream.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1964 The Cracker Jack Co. was
purchased by Borden and sold to PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division in 1997.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack)
1964 Kentucky Colonel Harland
Sanders (1890-1980) sold his fried chicken business for $2 million to
private investors, who resold it in 1971 for $285 million to Heublein.
R.J. Reynolds acquired Heublein in 1982 and sold it to PepsiCo in 1986.
(www.answers.com/topic/harland-sanders)
1965 May 16, Spaghetti-O's were
1st sold.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1965 Fred DeLuca, fresh out of
high school, founded Subway, a sandwich shop, with $1,000 start-up
money from a family friend. By 2007 it was the world’s largest sandwich
chain with over 25,000 stores in 83 countries.
(WSJ, 1/10/07, p.C2)
1965 A 7-Eleven manager happened
upon an Icee machine in a rival's store. He saw potential and got them
into three 7-Eleven stores. Slurpee was born in Kansas at a Dairy Queen
where owner Omar Knedlik served semi-frozen bottled soft drinks. When
they were a hit, he worked with a Dallas company to develop the "Icee"
machine that replicated that consistency in slushy soft drinks served
at 28 degrees.
(USAT, 7/11/05)
1966 Nov 18, US Roman Catholic
bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays outside
of Lent.
(AP, 11/18/08)
1966 Nabisco introduced a cheese
spread in an aerosol can under the name Snack Mate. It later became
part of Kraft and sold as Cheeze Whiz in a can.
(SFC, 1/31/08,
p.A13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Cheese)
1967 The California Packing Co.
(Calpak) changed its name to Del Monte.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.B1)(SSFC, 10/3/04, p.J1)
1968 Sep, The Big Mac was created
by McDonald’s franchisee Jim Delligatti in Pittsburgh. It sold for 49
cents.
(SFC, 9/10/98, p.B2)
1968 The J.M. Smucker Co.
introduced Goober Grape, a single container with peanut butter and
grape jelly swirled together.
(SFC, 1/31/08, p.A13)
1968 Denny’s bought Winchell’s
Donut Houses. Verne Winchell (d.2002 at 87) founded the business in the
1950s.
(SFC, 11/29/02, p.A27)
1968 The 4th Betty Crocker, a
General Mills advertising icon, made her appearance and continued to
1972.
(WSJ, 7/5/96,
p.A6)(http://chnm.gmu.edu/features/sidelights/crocker.html)
1968 Newton Glekel (1913-2007),
NYC real estate lawyer and deal maker, purchased a controlling interest
in Detroit-based Hygrade Food Products Co., maker of Ball Park hot
dogs. He sold his stake to Britain’s Hanson Industries Inc. in 1976.
(WSJ, 8/4/07, p.A4)
1968 Fred Mattson (d.1997 at 76)
and Dr. Robert Volpenhein, employed by Proctor & Gamble, created
olestra, a cocktail of fatty acids that enzymes left untouched.
(SFEC, 6/8/97,
p.D6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olestra)
1969 Oct 18, The US federal
government banned artificial sweeteners known as cyclamates because of
evidence they caused cancer in laboratory rats.
(AP, 10/18/97)
1969 Nov 15, Wendy's Hamburgers,
begun by Dave Thomas, opened in Ohio. In 2008 the chain was sold to
Triarc Cos., owner of the Arby’s roast beef sandwich restaurant chain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy's)(SFC, 4/25/08,
p.D3)
1969 Frank Zappa recorded a song
entitled "Electric Aunt Jemima" on his album Uncle Meat.
(www.tranglos.com/marek/yes/tr_146.html)
1969 Best Foods Inc., changed its
name to CPC International. It had begun as American Cotton Oil in 1889.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-45)
1969 Robert Byck (d.1999 at 66)
identified MSG, monosodium glutamate, as the cause of headaches for
some people who ate Chinese food with the additive. The psychiatrist
and brain researcher at Yale Medical School in 1979 gave Congress an
early warning that the United States faced an epidemic of smokable
cocaine,
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A22)(http://tinyurl.com/a6bdpn)
1970 Jul 24, Robert B. Choate
(d.2009 at 84), an engineer turned consumer advocate, testified on
nutrition information for consumers at a Senate subcommittee hearing
and used data supplied by cereal manufacturers. He ranked 60 cereals,
including Sugar Smacks, Froot Loops, and Lucky charms, by their
nutritive value, showing that 40 products offered such poor nourishment
that they were essentially “empty calories.”
(SFC, 5/22/09, p.B6)(http://tinyurl.com/qy7rgb)
1970 Orville Redenbacker’s Gourmet
Popping corn was launched at Chicago’s Marshall Field’s. Partners
Charlie Bowman (1919-2009) and Orville Redenbacker (1907-1995) sold the
popular brand in 1976 to Hunt-Wessen Foods Inc. The company was later
acquired by ConAgra Foods.
(WSJ, 4/18/09, p.A4)
1972 Jul 8, US sold grain to USSR
for $750 million. Soviet grain buyers over 6 weeks purchased $750
million worth of US grain. This was later called the "great grain
robbery" and the privately-held agribusiness giant Cargill played a
major role. The story of Cargill was told in the 1998 book "Cargill
Going Global" by Wayne Broehl Jr.
(MC, 7/8/02)(PC, 1992, p.1040)
1972 Dr. Robert C. Atkins
(d.2003), cardiologist, published his weight loss plan "Dr. Atkins’
Diet Revolution," which allowed patients to eat fat but restricted
carbohydrates.
(SFC, 4/18/03, p.A1)
1972 The See family sold their
South San Francisco chocolate and candy business to Warren Buffett,
chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Buffet named Charles Huggins as
See’s Candies top officer. Huggins retired at the end of 2005.
(SSFC, 1/15/06,
p.D6)(www.ifa.com/Library/Buffet.html)
1972 Herb Peterson (1919-2008), a
McDonald’s operator in Santa Barbara, Ca., created the Egg McMuffin.
(WSJ, 1/30/06, p.B2)(WSJ, 4/5/08, p.A7)
1973 Stanley Cohen, Stanford
geneticist, and Herbert Boyer of UCSF co-discovered the basic process
of gene-splicing. They spliced the DNA of one bacteria into another and
cultivated a new organism. The discovery was patented by Stanford and
UCSF and resulted in 25 year earnings of more than $200 million.
Recombinant DNA technology soon led to Genetically Modified Organisms
(GMOs) in food products.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 12/24/04, p.W6)
1973 Dorothy Turner Everett
(1932-2007) started a barbecue business in Oakland, Ca., that grew to
become the Everett & Jones chain of barbecue restaurants.
(SFC, 10/12/07, p.B11)
1973 Antoine Riboud (1918-2002)
merged his glassware company with the dairy business Gervais Danone,
creating Danone, the biggest food group in France.
(http://tinyurl.com/7zxts)
1973 Dun-Rite, a Fresno, Ca.,
maker of a pop-up timer for roasting turkeys, was sold to 3M Co. of St.
Paul, Minn. In 1982 3M sued the Volk Enterprises, another Fresno maker
of pop-up timers developed by Tony Volk. A few years later a settlement
was negotiated. In 1991 Volk acquired 3M’s pop-up business.
(WSJ, 11/22/05, p.A1)
1973 Kikkoman became the first
Japanese food company to open a factory in America.
(Econ, 4/11/09, p.68)
1974 Jun 26, At the Marsh
Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, Sharon Buchanon became the 1st cashier to
scan a Universal Product Code (UPC) code. The 59 black and white bar
code was used on a 67 cent 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing
gum. The scanner was a Spectra-Physics Model A. Norman Joseph Woodland
and Bernard Silver (d.1962) had patented the 1st bar code scanner in
1952. In 1977 an int’l. version was created.
(SFC, 7/5/04, p.E3)(SSFC, 11/6/05, p.B5)(SFC,
6/26/09, p.C3)
1974 Richard J. Mercer
(1924-2006), advertising executive, helped create the Burger King “Have
it your way” ad campaign. Mercer also wrote the phrase.
(WSJ, 1/6/07, p.A4)
1975 General Foods was awarded US
Patent No. 3,870,803 for its Instant Stuffing Mix (Stove Top Stuffing).
Ruth M. Siems (1931-2005) was listed first among the inventors.
(SFC, 11/25/05, p.B4)
1976 Clint Murchison Jr., owner of
the Dallas Cowboys, visited Miami for the Super Bowl and stopped for
ribs at a restaurant owned by Tony Roma (d.2003). He enjoyed the foods
so much that he purchased the majority of US franchise rights. In 2003
the chain had grown to over 250.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A21)
1977 Feb 11, A 20.2-kg lobster was
caught off Nova Scotia (heaviest known crustacean).
(MC, 2/11/02)
1977 Wendell Berry authored "The
Unsettling of America," a critique of American agriculture.
(SSFC, 6/23/02, p.M6)
1977 Bill Niman (32) and Orville
Schell purchased 200 acres in Bolinas, Ca., to run cattle, starting
their Niman-Schell ranch. They operated under the assumption that meat
could be raised naturally, humanely and sustainably. The partners split
in 1997 and the business became known as the Niman Ranch. In 2007 Hilco
became the chief investor and in 2009 Niman withdrew from the
operations, which never turned a profit.
(SSFC, 2/22/09, p.A1)
1978 Dec 26, In San Jose, Ca.,
Nolan K. Bushnell, inventor of the Pong video game, opened the
20,000-sq.-foot Pizza Time Theater, the world's largest pizza parlor.
(SFC, 12/26/03, p.E2)
1978 John Mackey began his Whole
Foods Market in a garage in Austin, Texas, under the name SaferWay. In
1980 he merged with a natural grocery store and opened as Whole Foods
Market. The natural foods grocery went public in 1992.
(Econ, 7/30/05,
p.60)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Foods_Market)
1978 The Chicago Food Depository
opened with its main mission to feed the hungry. In 1998 it began to
offer chef training classes to help people get jobs.
(WSJ, 11/28/06, p.A1)
1978 In the Philippines Tony Tan
Caktiong formed Jollibee after realizing that customers in his Manila
ice cream parlor liked his soy and sugar seasoned burgers better than
his sundaes.
(http://jollibeephilippines.com/15/success-story-of-jollibee-in-the-philippines/#more-15)
1979 Tim and Nina Zagat began a
mimeographed list of restaurants rated by a few friends that grew into
the Zagat restaurant guides. Their first guide covered restaurants in
NYC. Sales exceeded $20 million in 2002.
(SFC, 3/16/02,
p.D1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagat's_Survey)
1979 Bob Charles, a McDonald’s
franchisee in Colorado, helped create the Happy Meal when he added a
toy to children’s orders at his restaurants.
(WSJ, 1/30/06, p.B2)
1980 Nov 19, T.J. Palmer and her
husband Bill opened the first Applebee’s restaurant in Atlanta,
Georgia. T.J. Applebee’s Rx for Edibles & Elixirs became popular
and they soon opened a second one. In 1983 they sold them to W.R. Grace
which passed the brand in 1988 to franchisees in Kansas City, who took
the chain public.
(WSJ, 6/28/07,
p.A13)(http://applebees-founder.com/history2.htm).
1980 Dec 16, Harland Sanders,
founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain, died in
Shelbyville, Kentucky, at age 90.
(AP, 12/16/00)
1980 Stephen Bernard (d.2009 at
61) and his wife Lynn founded his kettle-cooked Cape Cod Potato Chips
brand. The company was sold to Anheuser-Busch in 1985, but they
reacquired it when the brewer sold its Eagle Snacks division to Lance
Inc. in 1999.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.B7)
1980-1989 US bottlers of Coca-Cola switched from cane
sugar to high-fructose corn syrup in the 1980s to cut costs. Mexican
bottlers continued to use cane sugar.
(WSJ, 1/11/06, p.A1)
1982 Coca-Cola bought Columbia
Pictures for $750 million.
(SSFC, 1/18/04, p.A14)
1982 Alberto Culver introduced
Mrs. Dash, a salt-free seasoning made of dried onion, garlic, lemon
rind, and spices. Its popularity ebbed in the 1990s.
(WSJ, 2/25/05, p.A1)
1982 McDonald's Corp. introduced
Chicken McNuggets.
(WSJ, 9/16/99, p.B1)
1982 McDonald's, the US fast food
giant, began operations in Malaysia.
(AP, 4/29/09)
1982 Actor Paul Newman (1925-2008)
put up $40,000 to help start a specialty food company with writer A.E.
Hotcher called Newman’s Own. 100% of the profits were directed to
charities.
(SSFC, 9/28/08, p.A17)
1982 Klaus Jacobs (1936-2008),
head of the German coffee dealer Jacobs AG, orchestrated the takeover
of Switzerland’s Interfood SA, maker of the Toblerone candy bar. In
1990 Philip Morris bought Jacobs Suchard for $3.8 billion. Klaus went
on to buy a Swiss staffing firm and in 1996 merged it with France’s
Ecco SA to form Adecco SA, which became one of the world’s largest
staffing firms.
(WSJ, 9/20/08, p.A12)
1982 The cow named Ubre Blanca
(10), crossed from a Holstein and a Zebu, produced 241 pounds of milk
in a single day. The town of Nueva Geron erected a marble statue for
her after her death in 1985.
(WSJ, 5/21/02, p.A1)
1983 Oct, Frank W. Epperson (89),
who invented the Popsicle on an extraordinarily cold night in San
Francisco in 1905, died in SF.
(SSFC, 10/19/08, DB p.58)
1984 Jan 10, Clara Peller
(1902-1987) 1st asked, "Where's the Beef?" as part of a TV ad.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where's_the_beef%3F)
1984 Jan 14, Ray Kroc (b.1902),
founder of MacDonalds and owner San Diego Padres, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kroc)
1984 Feb 23, Two oceanic
conservation groups reported that SF Bay Area fishermen have caught
only 10-12% of their 10,000 ton herring quota as they passed more than
halfway through the fishing season. Quotas had doubled since 1977 and
they were concerned that the herring stocks may be at the point of no
return. The herring was harvested primarily for their roe, which
fetched up to $500 a ton and was eagerly sought by Japanese consumers.
(SSFC, 2/22/09, DB p.54)
1984 Mar 2, One of the first
McDonald's franchises was closed in Des Plaines, IL.
(http://tinyurl.com/28tp6z)
1984 Nov 20, McDonald's made its
50 billionth hamburger.
(http://tinyurl.com/2p8ua9)
1984 Robert Brooks (1937-2006) and
a group of Atlanta investors bought expansion and franchise rights to
the Hooters restaurant chain. The 1st store had opened in Florida in
1983.
(www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/16/obit.hooters.ap/index.html)
1984 Harold McGee authored “On
Food and Cooking.” It became the standard authority on gastronomical
science, that area where science and art, technique, and aesthetics
intersect.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.140)(http://tinyurl.com/2numbb)
1985 Jan 21, James Beard (b.1903),
US culinary expert, author (Delights & Prejudices), died.
(http://members.localnet.com/~jgeorge/jbeard.htm)(SFC, 5/4/05, p.E1)
1985 Mar 7, Victor W. Farris (75),
inventor of paper clip and paper milk carton (1932), died in Palm
Beach, Fla. [see 1824 and Oct 19, 1915]
(www.msu.edu/~daggy/cop/bkofdead/obits-fa.htm)
1985 Apr 23, The Coca-Cola Co.
announced it was changing the secret formula for Coke. Negative public
reaction soon forced the company to resume selling the original version.
(AP, 4/23/97)
1985 Jun 30, James A. Dewar,
creator of the Twinkie (1930), died.
(www.foodreference.com/html/wjamesadewar.html)
1985 Jul 10, Bowing to pressure
from irate customers, the Coca-Cola Company said it would resume
selling old-formula Coke, while continuing to sell New Coke.
(AP, 7/10/00)
1985 Phil Sokolof founded the
National Heart Savers Association. He went on to spend some $15 million
to change American eating habits, encourage cholesterol testing and
getting nutritional labels placed on everything edible.
(SFC, 11/28/03, p.C6)
1985 AstraZeneca introduced the
fake meat Quorn, a processed mycoprotein, into a variety of food
products. It was made from a fungus discovered in the 1960s. it reached
US markets in 2002.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.A2)
1986 Brian (d.2004 at 51) and
Jennifer Maxwell of Marin Ct., Ca., founded PowerBar, an energy
supplement for athletes. They sold the company in 2000 to Nestle SA for
$375 million.
(SFC, 3/20/04, p.B1)
1986 The Bay Area Doggie Diner
chain went out of business. The diners had numbered 30 at one time.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.C3)
1986 In Italy the first McDonald's
Hamburger restaurant opened in Rome.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, Z1 p.2)
1986 In Italy 62 founding members
met to inaugurate Arcigola, the forerunner of Slow Food.
(www.slowfood.com/about_us/eng/history.lasso)
1987 Jun 19, Vermont’s Ben &
Jerry Ice Cream & Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia announce new Ice
Cream flavor, Cherry Garcia.
(www.foodreference.com/html/html/june19.html)(http://tinyurl.com/ptccd)
1987 New Jersey adopted
legislation requiring bottled water to carry an expiration date. Water
companies began stamping all bottles.
(WSJ, 2/11/04, p.D11)
1987 Michael Gilliland and his
wife, Elizabeth Cook, purchased a vegetarian food store in Boulder,
Colo. In 1991 they opened their 1st supermarket-size store in Santa Fe,
NM, and renamed the company Wild Oats Vegetarian Market. They
went public in 1996 and by 2006 had 114 stores in 24 states.
(WSJ, 10/26/06, p.C1)
1987 Nov, The US-headquartered KFC
launched its first China outlet in the Qianmen area of Beijing,
neighboring Tiananmen Square.
(www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-09/08/content_7007412.htm)
1988 Apr 29, McDonald's announced
it would open its first restaurants in Moscow.
(AP, 4/29/98)
1988 Aug 28, The Yan Hee
Polyclinic in Bangkok, Thailand, reported on a new slimming technique.
Overweight Thais were suppressing their appetites by sticking lettuce
seeds in their ears and pressing them in ten times before meals.
(HTnet, 8/28/99)
1988 In southern Peru Eduardo and
Mirtha Ananos began making a cola drink. By 2003 their Kola Real was
being marketed in Mexico and Ecuador.
(WSJ, 10/27/03, p.A1)(Econ, 10/11/03, p.69)
1989 Oct 20, Smith Dairy at
Orrville, Ohio, made the largest milk shake (1,575.2 gal).
(http://library.thinkquest.org/11960/fun/records.htm)
1989 Quaker Oats modernized Aunt
Jemima, making her thinner, eliminating her bandanna, and giving her a
perm and a pair of pearl earrings.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima)
1989 Carlo Petrini founded the
Slow Food Movement and adopted the Slow Food Manifesto. In 2003 William
McCuaig translated "Slow Food: The Case for Taste" by Carlo Petrini.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.M3)
1990 Feb 14, Perrier recalled 160
million bottles of sparkling water after traces of benzene, a
carcinogen, were found in some bottles.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1990 Mar 7, Health and Human
Services Secretary Louis Sullivan announced the US government would
propose a more informative food-labeling system that would require the
disclosure of the fat, fiber and cholesterol content of nearly all
packaged foods.
(AP, 3/7/00)
1990 Apr 5, Paul Newman won a
court victory over Julius Gold to keep giving all profits from Newman
foods to charity.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1990 Apr 10, H.J. Heinz said it
would not sell tuna caught in nets that also trap dolphins.
(http://tinyurl.com/kj7mq)
1990 Oct, McDonald's chose
Shenzhen for its first Chinese restaurant.
(www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-09/08/content_7007412.htm)
1990 The California Organic Food
Acts was established.
(SFC, 6/22/02, p.B1)
1990 McDonald’s switched to
vegetable oil and added beef flavoring to improve the
cholesterol-producing profile of its french fries.
(SFC, 9/4/02, p.A14)
1992 Apr 13, Crystal Pepsi began
test marketing in Providence, Denver and Dallas.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1992 Apr 23, McDonald's opened its
first fast-food restaurant in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
(AP, 4/23/97)
1992 Apr 28, The Agriculture
Department unveiled its pyramid-shaped recommended-diet chart that had
cost nearly $1 million to develop.
(AP, 4/28/97)
1992 Jun 22, M.F.K. Fisher
(b.1908), cook book author, died of Parkinson Disease. In 2004 Joan
Reardon authored “Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of MFK
Fisher.
(www.foodreference.com/html/html/june22.html)(SFC,
11/16/04, p.D1)
1992 Panama disease, caused by the
fusarium fungus, mutated to a form capable of attacking the Cavendish
variety of banana and wiped out plantations in Malaysia. The disease
had previously destroyed the popular Gros Michel variety, which was
left growing only in remote parts of Uganda and Jamaica.
(Econ, 10/22/05, p.85)
1994 Apr 5, Andre Victor
Tchelistcheff (92), winemaker, died.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1994 May 19, The US FDA approved
of the first genetically engineered tomato.
(www.bioline.org.br/request?nl94033)
1994 Oct, Congress passed the
Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. It was intended to keep
the FDA’s hands off of vitamin and mineral supplements unless something
goes wrong. It relaxed rules on how herbs could be marketed by allowing
companies to advertise structure and function claims even if medical
evidence was sketchy.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 12/3/97, p.A1)
1994 Pop singer Gladys Knight
became a spokesperson for Aunt Jemima Lite syrup.
(http://tinyurl.com/o87jd)
c1995 Fresh Del Monte launched its
"Gold" pineapple, grown in the volcanic soils of Costa Rica, and
secured a patent for it.
(WSJ, 10/7/03, p.A1)
1995 The EU banned Sudan 1, a red
dye and genotoxic carcinogen, from use in food.
(Econ, 2/26/05, p.56)
1995 Len Kretchman and David Geske
of Fargo, ND, developed the Uncrustable sandwich, a peanut butter and
jelly sandwich sealed in a pocket of bread. Smucker Corp. bought their
company and received a patent for the sandwich in Dec, 1999.
(WSJ, 4/5/05, p.B1)
1996 Jan 24, The FDA approved a
fat substitute to be marketed by Proctor and Gamble under the name
Olestra. It is know to cause abdominal cramps but not to a medically
significant degree.
(WSJ, 1/25/96, A-1)(AP, 1/24/01)
1996 May 31, The Finnish food
company Raisio Group has invented a new product that blocks the body’s
absorption of cholesterol. The new "pharmafood" is called benecol and
based on a plant extract known as beta sitostanol, a plant sterol
extracted from Nordic pine trees.
(WSJ, 5/31/96, p.B3C)
1996 Jul 5, An essay by SB Stewart
discussed the history of Betty Crocker and showed the latest 8th Betty
Crocker [General Mills advertising icon]. She was put together from the
features of 75 women from around the country.
(WSJ, 7/5/96, p.A6)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of a
Big Mac in the US was $2.36. In Germany it was $3.22.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Par, p.17)
1996 Aug 26, A new fake fat,
Z-trim, was announced. It was developed by a researcher of the US Dept.
of Agriculture.
(SFC, 8/26/96, p.A4)
1996 Helen Gustafson (d.2003 at
74) authored "The Agony of the Leaves / The Ecstasy of My Life With
Tea," a mixture of memoir, tea lore and recipes.
(SFC, 12/18/03, p.A25)
1996 Dr. Robert Steinberg (d.2008
at 61) and John Scharffenberger opened their Scharffen Berger chocolate
business in South San Francisco. They sold the business to Hershey in
2005.
(SFC, 9/23/08, p.B5)
1997 Feb 22, The new welfare law
in the US put tens of thousands of people off of food stamps as of
today. The new law stated that adults under age 50 without children or
jobs could only receive food stamps for 3 months in any 3-year period.
The law authorized states to contract with private companies to provide
welfare services.
(SFC, 2/22/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/19/97, p.A1)(AP,
2/22/02)
1997 Mar 3, It was announced that
scientists had discovered why some people get fat, while others do not.
They identified a gene that produces the UCP2 protein which tends to
convert fat to energy rather than leaving it stored as fat.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A3)
1997 May 18, From London it was
reported that new self-cooling cans would soon hit the soft-drink
market. The cans would use HFC 134a as the coolant and scientist and
environmentalists feared the impact on global warming. The coolant was
developed to replace CFCs and there was no int’l. control on its use.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, p.A2)
1997 May 24, In the Ukraine the
first McDonald’s restaurant opened.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 15, The US government
expanded its recall of ground beef sold under the Hudson brand name to
1.1 million pounds because of new evidence of possible contamination by
E. coli bacteria.
(AP, 8/15/98)
1997 Aug 21, A hamburger recall
was extended to cover some 25 million pounds. The Hudson Foods Inc., of
Rogers, Ark., closed its Nebraska beef-processing facility under a
"non-negotiable" recommendation by Agricultural Sec. Dan Glickman due
to E. coli poisonings in Colorado.
(SFC, 8/22/97, p.A3)(AP, 8/21/98)
1997 The Italian Parmalat Corp.
acquired Beatrice Foods.
(WSJ, 12/22/03, p.A6)
1998 Feb 19, Scientists reported
the discovery of the brain’s hunger hormone. It was named "orexin"
after the Greek word "orexis" meaning hunger.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A11)
1998 May 29, It was reported that
54% of adult Americans are overweight and that 22% are obese.
(WSJ, 5/29/98, p.A1)
1998 May, In Maryland Tyson foods
agreed to pay $6 million to the federal government to settle
environmental violations from 1993-1997 at its 105-acre chicken
processing plant in Berlin, 8 miles west of Ocean City. The plant was
then owned by Hudson Foods.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A5)
1998 John V.R. Evans of Alaska’s
Matanuska Valley set a Guinness world record by growing an 18-pound, 13
ounce carrot.
(SFC, 7/6/05, p.A2)
1998 Oct 9, The weekly Der Spiegel
reported that spinach grown near the nuclear reprocessing plant in
Sellafield, England, had doses of technetium-99 that was 7 times above
EU food standards. Greenpeace in April had demonstrated that game
pigeons in the area were irradiated.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A9)
1998 Nov 23, The European Union
lifted a worldwide export ban on British beef. The ban was imposed
after experts announced a possible link between "mad cow" disease and a
fatal disease in humans.
(AP, 11/23/02)
c1998 Fried candy bars began to
show up at US fairs, imported from the fish-and-chip shops of Scotland.
(WSJ, 10/21/03, p.A1)
1998 The EU imposed a ban on
genetically modified crops.
(AP, 1/16/04)
1999 Mar 26, In Uganda it was
reported that wheat stem-rust fungus had appeared on a crop. The fungus
killed nearly half the world's crop before the green revolution of the
1950s. The black rust disease was named Ug99 and by 2007 had jumped to
Yemen. In 2008 it was confirmed in Iran. In 2008 Cornell Univ. received
a $26.8 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to
help combat the new strains of rust disease.
(WSJ, 3/26/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.A16)
1999 May 3, It was reported that
Take Control, a new butter-margarine substitute from Lipton, was deemed
safe by the FDA. The produce was made to help promote healthy
cholesterol levels.
(SFC, 5/3/99, p.A6)
1999 May 19, Researchers reported
that pollen from corn infused with genes from the Bacillus
thuringiensis (Bt) is toxic to monarch butterfly larvae when sprinkled
on milkweed, a natural food source for the caterpillars. The
genetically manipulated corn comprised about 20% of the US crop.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A1,15)
1999 Nov, The US FDA started
allowing manufacturers to claim that soy products might cut the risk of
heart disease. In 2006 long term studies cast doubts on the health
benefits of soy-based foods.
(SFC, 1/23/06, p.A2)(SSCM, 8/13/06, p.7)
1999 The Weston A. Price
Foundation was established in Washington DC to promote traditional
foods such as grass-fed beef and unpasteurized milk.
(WSJ, 9/11/03, p.A1)
1999 In Washington DC Restaurant
Nora, under chef-owner Nora Pouillon, became the 1st certified organic
restaurant in the US.
(SFC, 12/31/03, p.E7)
1999 Wisconsin dairy farmers began
a cow-sharing program in order to send owners unpasteurized milk. Sale
of unpasteurized milk was illegal in Wisconsin and 21 other states.
(WSJ, 9/11/03, p.A1)
2000 Apr 5, A 261-page report by
the 12-person National Research Council said "it was not aware of any
evidence suggesting foods on the market today are unsafe to eat as a
result of genetic modification."
(SFC, 4/6/00, p.A3)
2000 Aug 17, It was reported that
a soybean aphid from China threatened the $13.5 billion US soybean
market.
(WSJ, 8/17/00, p.A2)
2000 In Ukiah, Ca., the Ukiah
Brewing Company became the 2nd certified organic restaurant in the US.
(SFC, 12/31/03, p.E7)
2000 Mauritania launched a radio
and television campaign to end gavage, the practice of force-feeding
girls to make them gain weight as a sign of health and fertility.
Illiteracy made progress slow.
(WSJ, 12/29/04, p.A1)
2001 May 1, In Seattle Hindus
filed a suit against McDonald’s for nondisclosure of beef flavoring in
French fries.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.A9)
2001 Jun 13, Kraft Foods went
public in the NY Stock Exchange.
(WSJ, 4/16/03, p.C1)
2001 Dec 16, The Mexican freighter
N.V. Ikon Mazatlan arrived in Cuba with 26,400 tons of American corn a
day after 500 tons of American frozen chicken parts were received.
(SFC, 12/17/01, p.A3)
2001 Eric Schlosser authored “Fast
Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.”
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.M2)
2001 Andrew F. Smith authored
"Pure Ketchup, A History of America's National Condiment."
(SFC, 8/27/03, p.E4)
2001 Researchers identified a
“skimmed milk” gene in a cow. In 2007 a biotech company in New Zealand
announced that it had bred a cow to produce low-fat milk.
(SFC, 6/2/07, p.B6)
2002 Jan 8, Dave Thomas (69),
founder of Wendy's hamburger chain, died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
(SFC, 1/9/02, p.A1)(AP, 1/8/03)
2002 Mar 6, It was reported that a
diet rich in tomato products can lower the risk of prostate cancer
(Journal of National Cancer Institute).
(SFC, 3/6/02, p.A2)y(WSJ, 3/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 4, Draft rice-genome maps
were published by scientists from China and Switzerland’s Syngenta.
(WSJ, 4/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 26, The SF-based Texas
Pacific Group agreed to buy Burger King from Diageo PLC for $2.26
billion.
(SFC, 7/26/02, p.B1)
2002 Jul 26, Hershey Foods in
Hershey, Pa., announced that it would put itself up for sale under
directions by the Hershey Trust Co.
(SFC, 7/26/02, p.B3)
2002 Sep 3, McDonald’s announced
it will use a new soy-corn oil to reduce the levels of trans fat and
increase polyunsaturated fat in its fried products.
(SFC, 9/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 20, William Rosenberg
(86), founder of the Dunkin' Donuts chain, died in Mashpee, Mass.
(AP, 9/20/03)
2002 Sep 30, It was reported that
asparagine, a naturally occurring amino acid, formed acrylamide, a
suspected carcinogen, when heated with certain sugars. This reaction
was believed to occur in the making of fried foods such as potato chips
and french fries.
(SFC, 9/30/02, p.A3)
2002 Andrew Kimbrell edited "Fatal
Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture," an encyclopedia of
what’s gone wrong with how we provide food in the modern world.
(SSFC, 6/23/02, p.M6)
2002 Paris businessman Tawfiq
Mathlouthi launched Mecca Cola.
(SFC, 6/27/03, p.D1)
2003 Feb 24, Bernard
Loiseau (52), a celebrated French chef whose Cote D’Or restaurant in a
small Burgundy town became a mecca for the world’s gourmets, died of
apparent suicide.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Feb 28, The FDA announced
that every bottle of ephedra would soon bear stern warnings that the
popular herb could cause heart attacks or strokes, even kill.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2003 Apr 17, Dr. Robert C. Atkins
(72), cardiologist, died in NYC from a fall on ice. In 1972 he
published his weight loss plan "Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution," which
allowed patients to eat fat but restricted carbohydrates. A medical
report in 2004 said Atkins weighed 258 pounds at his death and that he
had a history of congestive heart failure. Atkins weighed 195 pounds
when he fell on ice, but gained some 63 pounds from fluids during
efforts to revive him.
(SFC, 4/18/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/10/04, p.D1)(WSJ,
2/13/04, p.B3)
2003 Apr 22, A new study reported
that tea boosts the body’s defenses against infections. L-theonine in
black tea is broken down in the liver to ethylamine, a molecule that
primes the response of the immune system.
(SFC, 4/22/03)
2003 Apr, Amrat Cola was launched
in Pakistan.
(SFC, 6/27/03, p.D1)
2003 May 15, San Francisco
attorney Stephen Joseph withdrew his recent suit against Kraft Inc. to
stop the sale of Oreo cookies. He was satisfied with the media
attention on the high trans fat content in the cookies and other
products.
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 18, The Mercury Policy
Project reported that 1/3 of albacor tuna contained levels of toxic
mercury exceeding a federally recommended dose fro women of
child-bearing age.
(SFC, 6/19/03, p.A10)
2003 Oct 21, A report from the
Environmental Working Group ranked pesticide contamination for 46
fruits and vegetables based on lab tests done between 1992 and 2001.
(SFC, 10/21/03, p.A3)
2003 Dec 2, Alan Davidson (79), a
career diplomat who shared his knowledge of exotic cuisines in a series
of best-selling books, died in London. His books included:
"Mediterranean Seafood" (1972), "Seafood of South East Asia" and "North
Atlantic Seafood" (1979).
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 19, Parmalat SpA, an
Italian food giant, reported a $4.9 billion shortfall. Soon another
$3.6 billion in bonds was also in question. Parmalat planned to file
for bankruptcy protection in what turned into the biggest corporate
fraud in Europe's history. Parmalat employed 36,000 people in 29
countries. Fausto Tonna, former chief financial officer, soon
acknowledged that there was systematic falsification of accounts for
some 15 years. In 2001 an auditor in Brazil had raised an alarm over
financial transactions. The accounting scandal reached $17 billion.
(SFC, 12/24/03, p.B1)(WSJ, 12/26/03, p.C1)(WSJ,
3/29/04, p.A3)(Econ, 8/6/05, p.57)
2003 Dec 30, The Bush
administration banned the use of meat from all sick or lame animals.
(SFC, 12/31/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 30, The US FDA banned the
dietary supplement ephedra. Some 16,000 adverse reactions had been
reported along with 155 deaths.
(WSJ, 12/30/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/31/03, p.A1)
2003 Arkansas state legislators
passed an act to measure the body mass index of its schoolchildren.
Data soon revealed that 40% of the children are obese or at risk of
becoming so.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.29)
2003 Denmark became the first
country in the world to introduce restrictions on the use of
industrially produced trans fatty acids. Oils and fats were forbidden
on the Danish market if they contain trans fatty acids exceeding 2 per
cent.
(www.bakeryandsnacks.com/news/ng.asp?id=58838-adm-ramps-up)
2003 Plumpy’nut, a peanut paste
developed in France in 1997, was 1st used on a large scale in Sudan’s
Darfur region to alleviate hunger.
(Econ, 11/5/05, p.51)
2004 Jan 8, The journal Science
reported high levels of dangerous chemicals in farmed salmon. Wild
Pacific salmon had 10 times less than the farmed ones.
(SFC, 1/9/04, p.A2)
2004 Jan 22, US Congress approved
an $820 billion spending bill. It included a labeling law for the
seafood industry for "country of origin."
(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A3)(SFC, 2/4/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb, Amadeus Corp. of Peru
launched a new soft drink called Vortex, made with coca extract. The
cocaine alkaloid was removed but export was still banned.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.36)
2004 Mar 9, Britain ended a 3-year
review and agreed to allow farmers to grow one variety genetically
modified "GM" corn.
(WSJ, 3/10/04, p.A14)
2004 Mar 15, Missouri jurors
agreed that vapors from butter flavoring at the microwave popcorn
factory had permanently ruined the lungs of Eric Peoples. The verdict
was against International Flavors and Fragrances Inc. and its
subsidiary Bush Boake Allen Inc. The flavoring manufacturers were
ordered to pay $18 million to Peoples and $2 million to his wife.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Mar 27, Edward J. Piszek
(87), founder of Mrs. Paul's Kitchens, died in Fort Washington, Pa.
(SFC, 4/1/04, p.B7)
2004 Apr 19, Jim Cantalupo (60),
McDonald's Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive, died of an apparent
heart attack in Florida and the company named Chief Operating Officer
Charlie Bell to replace him as CEO.
(AP, 4/19/04)
2004 May 19, The European Union
lifted its 6-year-old ban on biotech products by approving imports of
an insect-resistant strain of sweet corn for human consumption.
(AP, 5/19/04)
2004 May 26, The US government
planned to set a limit on how much salt American should consume to
2,300 mg a day.
(WSJ, 5/26/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 4, In NYC Takeru "The
Tsunami" Kobayashi chewed up the competition at the Nathan's Famous hot
dog eating competition, breaking his own previous world record.
Kobayashi, of Nagano, Japan, gulped down 53 1/2 wieners in 12 minutes
and shattered his own world record by three dogs. 105-pound Sonya "The
Black Widow" Thomas, 36, of Alexandria, Va., ate more hot dogs (32)
than any other woman and any other American in the contest's history.
(AP, 7/4/04)
2004 Jul 16, Peru’s National
Agrarian Research Institute launched a new super-cuy (guinea pig),
weighing up to 10 pounds, to help improve the Peruvian diet.
(Econ, 7/17/04, p.37)
2004 Jul 29, Milk prices in the
Bay Area, $4.71 pre gallon, were reported to be 29% higher than the
$3.66 per gallon average reported by the USDA in a survey of 29 major
US cities outside California.
(SFC, 7/29/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 8, Gypsy Boots (~89),
health fanatic born as Robert Bootzin, died in LA. He was the author of
“Bare Feet and Good Things to Eat.”
(SFC, 8/12/04, p.B6)
2004 Aug 13, Julia Child (91), the
grande dame of US television cooking shows and books, died in Santa
Barbara, Ca. During WWII she spent 3 years working for the Office of
Strategic Services (OSS). In 2006 Her memoir “My Life in France,”
co-written with Alex Prud’homme, was published. In 1997 Noel Riley
Fitch authored “”Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child.”
(Reuters, 8/13/04)(Econ, 8/28/04, p.78)(SSFC,
4/2/06, p.M1)(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.D7)
2004 Aug 20, Thailand’s PM Thaksin
said he would overturn the country’s current ban on commercial
production and trade in genetically modified food (GMOs).
(WSJ, 10/29/04, p.A13)
2004 Oct 2, In Ontario, Canada, a
record 1,446 pound pumpkin was unveiled.
(SFC, 10/12/04, p.B1)
2004 Oct 20, Terra Madre, an
international meeting of food communities, held its first meeting in
Turin, Italy. It formed as a part of the Slow Food movement. The group
followed with meetings every 2 years.
(SSFC, 10/26/08,
p.A18)(www.worldchanging.com/archives/005321.html)
2004 It was reported that McDonald
County, Miss., home to 13 million broiler chickens and a few hundred
thousand turkeys, had every stream on a government “impaired water
body” list.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.M2)
2004 Steve Almond authored “Candy
Freak,” a sort of travelogue on US candy makers.
(WSJ, 5/12/04, p.A1)
2004 Nina Fedoroff and Nancy Marie
Brown authored “Mendel in the Kitchen,” a look at the past, present and
future of genetics in agriculture.
(WSJ, 11/11/04, p.D9)
2004 Mireille Guiliano authored
“French Women Don’t’ Get Fat.”
(SSFC, 1/23/05, p.F3)
2004 Richard Manning authored
"Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization."
(SSFC, 2/29/04, p.M1)
2004 Ken Midkiff authored “The
Meat You Eat: How Corporate Farming Has Endangered America’s Food
Supply.”
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.M1)
2004 Jack Turner authored “Spice:
The History of a Temptation.”
(SSFC, 8/15/04, p.M3)
2005 Jan 2, H. David Dalquist
(86), creator of the aluminum Bundt pan (1950), the top-selling cake
pan in the world, died at his home in Edina, Minn. He founded St. Louis
Park-based Nordic Ware, which has sold more than 50 million Bundt pans.
(AP, 1/5/05)
2005 Jan 12, New US government
Dietary Guidelines suggested 30 minutes of daily physical activity to
reduce risk of chronic disease; 60 minutes to maintain a healthy
weight; and 90 minutes to lose weight.
(SFC, 1/13/05, p.A4)
2005 Jan 31, The US government
released a list of 17 new carcinogens that included X-rays, some
viruses and chemicals used in frying and grilling meat.
(SFC, 2/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 12, Customers of the
German Edeka supermarket chain will soon be able to pay for their
shopping by placing their finger on a scanner at the check-out, saving
up to 40 seconds spent scrabbling for coins or cards.
(Reuters, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 15, It was noted that
Israeli researchers had found that pomegranate juice, 8 ounces a day,
helps lower cholesterol.
(WSJ, 3/15/05, p.D4)(WSJ, 4/5/05, p.D4)
2005 Mar, American potato farmers
formed the United Potato Growers of America, a group of regional
farming cooperatives intent on keeping demand for potatoes high by
controlling supply. The 1922 Capper-Volstead Act exempted farmers from
federal antitrust laws permitting them to share prices and orchestrate
supply.
(WSJ, 9/26/06, p.B1)
2005 Apr 14, A US Federal Court
ruled in favor of Neutraceutical Corp. and struck down the 2004 ban on
supplements containing ephedra, a once-popular weight-loss aid.
(SFC, 4/15/05, p.A6)
2005 Apr 19, The US government
sacked its one-size-fits-all food pyramid in favor of a dozen different
guides geared to individual nutritional needs and lifestyles.
(AP, 4/19/05)
2005 Jun 20, H.J. Heinz Co., the
largest ketchup maker in the US, said it has agreed to buy the HP Foods
and Lea & Perrins sauce divisions from France's Groupe Danone for
$852 mil.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Tom Standage authored “A
History of the World in Six Glasses: How beer, wine, spirits, coffee,
tea and Coca-Cola made the modern world.”
(Econ, 7/2/05, p.76)
2005 Burger King introduced its
hamburger operations in China.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.78)
2006 Jun 27, The City Council of
Oakland, Ca., passed a measure to ban Styrofoam food packaging for
restaurant takeout food effective January, 2007.
(SFC, 6/29/06, p.B3)
2006 Jul 16, Robert Brooks
(b.1937), chairman of Hooters of America, died in South Carolina. He
made a fortune selling chicken wings served by scantily clad waitresses.
(www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/16/obit.hooters.ap/index.html)(Econ, 7/29/06,
p.78)
2006 Sep 6, Reporting in the
Annals of Internal Medicine, European researchers said virgin olive oil
may be particularly effective at lowering heart disease risk because of
its high level of antioxidant plant compounds.
(Reuters, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 14, US federal health
officials said an outbreak a deadly strain of E. coli (0157:H7) had
left at least one person dead in Wisconsin over 100 others sick and
warned consumers not to eat bagged fresh spinach. The outbreak in 8
states soon extended to 25. The number sickened rose to at least 190.
Most of the spinach crop at this time of the year comes from
California. A special effort was under way in the Salinas Valley of
California, a major leafy-vegetable growing region, to look for any
possible source of contamination there. The outbreak was traced to
California’s Natural Selection Foods of San Juan Bautista, which
recalled all suspect products. This was the same deadly strain that in
1982 had sickened at least 47 people in Oregon and Michigan who ate
McDonald’s burgers. A surveillance system setup after a 1993 outbreak
at the Jack-in-the-Box fast food chain helped single out spinach as the
likely source of this outbreak. A 2nd death on Sep 20, a 2-year-old boy
in Idaho, was attributed to the spinach E. coli. A 3rd death in late
August, a woman (84) in Nebraska, was also attributed to the spinach E.
coli. On Sep 29 the FDA cleared spinach from California’s Monterey, San
Benito and Santa Clara counties.
(SFC, 9/23/06, p.A9)(WSJ, 9/25/06, p.A4)(SFC,
9/30/06, p.A5)(SFC, 10/7/06, p.A6)
2006 Oct 26, The Slow Food
movement, founded in 1989, sponsored Terra Madre in Turin, Italy. The
5-day event brought together representatives of food communities that
produced good, clean and fair food in a responsible and sustainable way.
(www.terramadre2006.org/terramadre/welcome_eng.lasso)
2006 Dec 4, An E. coli outbreak
that sickened at least 58 people, two of them seriously, was linked by
health investigators to three Taco Bell restaurants in New Jersey. The
outbreak, initially believed to stem from green onions, was later
believed to have come from lettuce.
(AP, 12/4/06)(SFC, 12/14/06, p.A6)
2006 Dec 5, New York became the
first city in the nation to ban artery-clogging trans fats at
restaurants. The ban became effective July 1,2007.
(AP, 12/6/06)(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A4)
2006 Tristram Stuart authored “The
Bloodless Revolution: “Radical Vegetarians and the Discovery of India.”
In 2007 the American version was subtitled “A Cultural History of
Vegetarianism from 1600 to Modern Times.”
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.M1)
2007 Jan 2, The UN lifted a ban on
int’l. trade in several types of caviar from the Caspian Sea.
Permission for the export of the expensive beluga variety was not
decided.
(SFC, 1/3/07, p.A6)
2007 Jan 26, It was reported that
Dr. Robert Bohannon, a Durham, North Carolina, molecular scientist, has
come up with a way to add caffeine to baked goods, without the bitter
taste of caffeine. Each piece of pastry is the equivalent of about two
cups of coffee.
(AP, 1/26/07)
2007 Feb 7, The US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) announced its approval of sales of Alli, a
reduced-strength version of the prescription diet drug Xenical. The
first diet pill for over the counter sale hit stores June 15.
(AP, 2/8/07)(SFC, 6/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 15, Government scientists
struggled to pinpoint the source of the first US salmonella outbreak
linked to peanut butter. Nearly 300 people in 39 states have fallen ill
since August, and federal health investigators said they strongly
suspect Peter Pan peanut butter and certain batches of Wal-Mart's Great
Value house brand, both manufactured by ConAgra Foods. By June the
number of cases grew to over 600 in 47 states.
(AP, 2/16/07)(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Feb 17, James Morris, the
head of the UN food agency, said some 18,000 children die every day
because of hunger and malnutrition and 850 million people go to bed
every night with empty stomachs, a "terrible indictment of the world in
2007."
(AP, 2/17/07)
2007 Mar 13, Environmental group
Greenpeace launched a fresh attack on genetically modified maize
developed by US biotech giant Monsanto, saying that rats fed on one
version developed liver and kidney problems.
(Reuters, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 16, Menu Foods, a major
manufacturer of dog and cat food sold under Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger
and other store brands, recalled 60 million containers of wet pet food
after reports of kidney failure and deaths.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2007 Mar 30, The Food and Drug
Administration said it had found melamine, a chemical used to make
plastics, in samples of Menu Foods pet food, as well as in wheat gluten
used as an ingredient in the wet-style products.
(AP, 3/30/08)
2007 Jul 1, In NYC a ban on
restaurant cooking with trans fats went into effect.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A4)
2007 Jul 23, The US FDA said
people should immediately throw away more than 90 different products,
from chili sauce to corned beef hash to dog food, produced at a
Castleberry plant in Augusta, Ga., linked to a botulism outbreak.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Sep, The world price of wheat
rose to over $400 per ton, the highest ever recorded.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.81)
2007 Sep 29, The Topps Meat Co.
expanded its recall of frozen hamburger patties to include 21.7 million
pounds of ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria
that sickened more than a dozen people in eight US states.
(AP, 9/30/07)
2007 Oct 16,
A study in Hong Kong reportedly found that Lupeol, a compound in
fruits like mangoes, grapes and strawberries, appears to be effective
in killing and curbing the spread of cancer cells in the head and neck.
(Reuters, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 20, Peg Bracken (89),
author of the "I Hate to Cook Book," died in Portland, Ore.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2007 Nov 1, General Mills recalled
about 5 million frozen pizzas sold nationwide under the Totino's and
Jeno's labels because of possible E. coli contamination.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Kate Colquhoun authored
“Taste: The Story of Britain through its Food.”
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.89)
2008 Jan 1, This marked the start
of the International Year of the Potato as declared by the UN. The
potato stood s the world’s 4th biggest food crop, after maize, wheat
and rice.
(Econ, 3/1/08, p.18, 92)(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A15)
2008 Jan 11, The EU food-safety
agency endorsed meat and milk derived from cloned animals.
(WSJ, 1/12/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 22, The NYC Board of
health voted to require restaurant chains to state the number of
calories in everything on their menus. Full enforcement began in July.
(www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pr2008/pr008-08.shtml)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.64)
2008 Feb 1, Scientists in Japan
and New Zealand said they have created a "tear-free" onion using
biotechnology to switch off the gene behind the enzyme that makes us
cry.
(AFP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 3, Police said Japanese
investigators found insecticide on the outside of six bags of
Chinese-made dumplings in Japan after separate dumplings made by the
same company sickened 10 people there.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 8, Officials said that
the WTO has ruled against the EU's import tariffs for bananas, possibly
opening the door to millions of dollars in US commercial sanctions.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 9, The French government
suspended the use of genetically modified corn crops in France while it
awaits EU approval for a full ban.
(AP, 2/9/08)
2008 Feb 17, The US Department of
Agriculture ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef
from a California slaughterhouse, the subject of an animal-abuse
investigation, that provided meat to school lunch programs. Downer cows
at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company had been processed and
sent for use in the National School Lunch Program.
(AP, 2/18/08)(Econ, 3/1/08, p.36)
2008 Feb, In China poisoned food
at a snack bar in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, killed two diners
and sickened 61 others. In 2009 two migrant workers were sentenced to
death for the poisoning. Ke Bizhi was sentenced to death, while Wang
Yingde was also given death but with the possibility of it being
commuted to a life sentence if he shows good behavior over the next two
years. Zhu Yuanlin, the businessman who masterminded the plot, was
sentenced to life in prison. Another man was given 15 years for his
role in the scheme.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2008 Mar 11, The SF Board of
Supervisors passed a law requiring chain restaurants to post nutrition
information on their menus.
(SFC, 3/12/08, p.C1)
2008 Mar 15, It was reported that
spores of Ug99, a wheat killing fungus that emerged in East Africa
nearly 10 years ago, has been spread by winds into the Saudi Peninsula
and South Asia.
(SFC, 3/15/08, p.B6)
2008 Mar 17, The Mozambican
government made an urgent appeal to the UN World Food Program to help
more than 60,000 people left destitute when cyclone Jokwe hit northern
and central parts of the country.
(AFP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 18, The World Food
Program (WFP) made a six million dollar appeal to feed some 90,000
Burundian refugees in Tanzania who expect to return to the central
African country in 2008.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 22, In southern Sudan two
World Food Program (WFP) drivers on their way to the oil-rich Abyei
state were stabbed to death by six assailants.
(Reuters, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 25, In Sudan a World Food
Program (WFP) driver was shot dead and his assistant seriously wounded
in South Darfur state.
(Reuters, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, It was reported that
British pig husbandry is in crisis due to exploding global grain
prices. Last month British pig farmers recorded “Stand By Your Ham”
based on the 1968 US country classic “Stand By Your Man” by Tammy
Wynette.
(WSJ, 3/26/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 26, Italian officials
held a crisis meeting after Japan and South Korea banned imports of
mozzarella following the discovery of high dioxin levels in buffalo
milk used to make the famed cheese.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 26, Philippine farmers
warned that the country was facing a serious rice supply crisis, as the
government signed a deal to import rice from Vietnam to boost local
reserves at a time of rising prices and shrinking global stocks.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Apr 2, Argentine farmers,
rebelling over soaring export taxes on their crops, declared a 30-day
truce suspending a three-week-long strike that has stripped grocery
shelves of beef and produce, granting Cristina Fernandez a reprieve in
the first major crisis of her presidency.
(AP, 4/3/08)(WSJ, 4/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 3, Corn prices jumped to
a record $6 a bushel, driven up by an expected supply shortfall that
will only add to Americans' growing grocery bill and further squeeze
struggling ethanol producers.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 12, About 20,000 workers
rioted over high food prices and low wages close to the Bangladesh
capital Dhaka, amid spreading global unrest over soaring grocery costs.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 14, Pres. Bush ordered
the release of $200 million in emergency aid as the UN Sec. Gen. said a
global food crises has reached emergency levels.
(WSJ, 4/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 15, Mike Leavitt, the top
US health official, said US food and drug regulators will start working
in China next month once Beijing gives its final approval.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, Kazakhstan joined
other Black Sea grain exporters in curbing shipments to combat
double-digit inflation. Wheat exports were suspended until Sep 10.
Kazakhstan will become the world’s 5th largest wheat exporter this
year, shipping half its record 2007 crop.
(WSJ, 4/16/08, p.A8)
2008 Apr 18,
In Mongolia more than 20,000 people flooded the center of the
capital, Ulan Bator, to demand that the government do something about
rising food prices that have nearly tripled in some cases.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 21, In Sudan gunmen
killed a second driver delivering food aid for the UN's World Food
Program in the Darfur region, where banditry has forced vital rations
to be halved.
(AFP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 21,Thailand’s government
said more than 10 million people in parts of its rice bowl region have
been hit by drought causing further concerns as prices of the staple
grain soared.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 22,
Security forces in northern Somalia stormed a hijacked ship carrying
food, rescuing hostages and arresting seven pirates. The seizure was
the latest in a spate of pirate attacks off the increasingly lawless
Somali coast.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 23, Venezuela’s President
Hugo Chavez joined with his leftist allies to create a $100 million
program to fight the rising cost of food for Latin America's poor.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 27, It was made public
that Mars Inc. of McLean, Va., together with Berkshire Hathaway had
agreed to acquire Wrigley Co. of Chicago, Ill., for about $23 billion.
The deal closed on Oct 6.
(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/7/08, p.D2)
2008 Apr 30, Canada pledged an
extra C$50 million ($49.5 million) for international food aid and said
it would also allow its money to be used to buy food abroad and not tie
it to purchases of Canadian produce.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 May 3, The Asian Development
Bank, announced emergency funding to help poor countries struggling
with rice prices that have nearly tripled in four months. The
Manila-based organization made the announcement while meeting in Spain.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, Senegal’s Pres.
Abdoulaye Wade called the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)
a “bottomless pit of money largely spent on its own functioning.”
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.69)
2008 May 5, In Somalia troops
opened fire and killed at least two people as tens of thousands of
people rioted over high food prices in Mogadishu.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 20, British PM Gordon
Brown urged rich countries to end agricultural subsidies, and said he
will press for a global trade agreement to help the world's poorest
farmers escape poverty.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 23, A UN food aid agency
said the response to its appeal for money to help meet soaring fuel and
food costs went beyond what it had hoped to collect, saying $500
million from Saudi Arabia means it won't have to cut rations.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 28, African leaders, in
Japan for a major development conference, lashed out at rich nations
for erecting trade barriers that prevent the continent's economic
development even as they make lofty pledges to boost aid. Japan pledged
to double aid to Africa by 2012 and to help the continent boost rice
production two-fold to ease food shortages.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 Jun 5, In Italy a 3-day UN
summit aimed at fighting hunger worldwide ended with pledges to boost
food output, calls to cut trade barriers and more research on biofuels.
Just before the meeting Saudi Arabia announced a donation of $500
million.
(WSJ, 6/6/08, p.A10)(Econ, 6/7/08, p.70)
2008 Jun 7, In Egypt thousands of
demonstrators fought with police after a protest over flour rations in
a town on the Mediterranean coast. Mustafa Khalil (88), a former
Egyptian prime minister (1978-1980), died. He was an architect of the
1979 Camp David peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 12, In Indonesia a local
health official said at least 21 toddlers have died of malnutrition in
eastern Indonesia in recent months due to a food shortage that
threatens the lives of thousands more children.
(AP, 6/12/08)
2008 Jun 18, Food manufacturers
promised Mexico's government that they would freeze prices on more than
150 food products to help families cope with rising costs.
(AP, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 30, The UN said thousands
of tons of food from the US has started flowing into North Korea.
(SFC, 7/1/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 21, The US FDA issued an
advisory for consumers to avoid eating uncooked jalapeno peppers after
it found a jalapeno grown in Mexico in a Texas border town warehouse
that tested positive with the same strain of salmonella that was
earlier associated with tomatoes.
(SFC, 7/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 25, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed a bill banning trans fat in restaurants and food
facilities, making California the first state to do so. The law takes
effect in two stages: Jan 1, 2010 and Jan 1, 2011.
(SFC, 7/26/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/26/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 30, The UN said hunger in
North Korea is at its worst since the 1990s, prompting the resumption
of emergency UN food shipments after a two-year hiatus.
(AFP, 7/30/08)
2008 Aug 8, Nebraska Beef, an
Omaha meat packer, recalled 1.2 million pounds of beef after products
were linked to illnesses in 12 states. In July the company had recalled
over 5 million pounds of beef due to an outbreak of E. coli in 7 states.
(SSFC, 8/10/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 29, In SF the 4-day Slow
Food Nation opened at the Civic Center Plaza and continued at Fort
Mason, where tickets to the Taste Pavilion sold for $65. The Slow Food
movement had begun in Italy in 1986.
(SSFC, 8/31/08, p.A1)(Econ, 9/13/08, p.38)
2008 Sep 12, Shops throughout
China pulled a milk powder suspected of killing 2 babies and sickening
dozens of others from shelves in the latest safety scandal to rock the
country's food industry. Investigators soon detained 19 people and were
questioning 78 to find out how melamine was added to milk supplied to
Sanlu Group Co., China's biggest milk powder producer. On Sep 15 Zhang
Zhenling, vice president of Sanlu Group, read a letter of apology at a
news briefing in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, where the
corporation is based.
(AP, 9/12/08)(AP, 9/13/08)(AFP, 9/15/08)
2008 Sep 19, Singapore banned all
dairy imports from China and the European Union demanded answers from
Beijing as the baby formula scandal, which left 4 babies dead and over
6 thousand infants ill across China, spread to liquid milk.
(Reuters, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 21, Wallace N. Rasmussen
(b.1914), former head of Beatrice Foods (1976-1979), died at his home
in Nashville, Tenn.
(WSJ, 10/4/08, p.A12)
2008 Sep 22, The number of Chinese
infants sick in hospital after drinking tainted milk formula doubled to
nearly 13,000 and the country's top quality regulator resigned in the
latest blight on the "made-in-China" brand.
(AP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 22, The UN appealed for
$460 million to feed some 10 million Ethiopians hit by drought and high
food prices.
(AP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 24, Britain pledged 26.9
million pounds for drought-hit Ethiopia, where some 9.6 million people
are in need of emergency food aid.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep 25, The EU banned imports
of baby food containing Chinese milk as tainted dairy products linked
to the deaths of four babies turned up in candy and other Chinese-made
goods that were quickly pulled from stores worldwide. More than a dozen
countries have banned or recalled Chinese dairy products as melamine
was found in milk products from 22 Chinese dairy companies.
(AP, 9/25/08)(SFC, 9/25/08, p.A3)
2008 Sep 29, British candy maker
Cadbury said it is recalling 11 types of Chinese-made chocolates found
to contain melamine, as police in northern China raided a network
accused of adding the banned chemical to milk.
(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Sep 30, A new US law took
effect as part of the 2008 Farm Bill requiring food retailers to label
or display the country of origin for meat, produce and certain kinds of
nuts.
(WSJ, 12/27/08, p.A7)
2008 Oct 1, In Australia a major
report to the government on global warming suggested that Australians
should eat kangaroos instead of cattle and sheep.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 1, Fifteen more Chinese
dairy companies were identified as producing milk products contaminated
with an industrial chemical, further broadening a scandal affecting
products ranging from baby formula to chocolate.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 5, Hong Kong said it
found two Cadbury chocolate products contained considerably more of the
industrial chemical melamine than the city's legal limit in a growing
scandal over Chinese tainted food. China attempted to contain the
fallout from the tainted milk scandal, announcing a new survey of dairy
products showed no traces of melamine and promising to subsidize
farmers hit by the scare.
(AP, 10/5/08)(AFP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 7, The UN food agency
(WFP) said it is resuming free breakfasts for hundreds of thousands of
poor Cambodian schoolchildren after securing new funds for a program
suspended due to high food prices.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 8, The Asian Development
Bank announced $35 million in emergency food aid to ease the burden of
soaring food prices among some of Cambodia's poorest people.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 9, Zimbabwe's opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai said that power-sharing talks with President
Robert Mugabe's government had stalled and outside mediation was needed
to break the deadlock. The UN food agency made an urgent appeal for 140
million dollars (102 million euros) in food aid for more than five
million Zimbabweans facing severe hunger. A state newspaper said
Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate soared to 231 million percent in July.
(AFP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 13, Swiss authorities
said they have found high concentrations of melamine in biscuits from
Thailand and Sri Lanka and have called on other European countries to
withdraw the products.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 14, An Ethiopian minister
said his country urgently needs US$265 million to feed 6.4 million
people affected by drought.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 16, Around one million
Burundian children under the age of five suffer chronic malnutrition,
the UN food agency announced as it marked World Food Day in the tiny
central African nation.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, The European
Commission announced 15 million euros (20 million dollars) of emergency
food aid for victims of drought and soaring food prices in five east
African countries. The biggest share will go to Ethiopia and Somalia
and smaller amounts to Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 29, A local Chinese
government acknowledged that officials knew about melamine-tainted eggs
for a month before the contamination was publicly disclosed. A Dalian
government notice said that local authorities were notified Sept. 27 of
tests by the customs bureau of Liaoning province that had found
melamine in a batch of export-bound eggs produced by Dalian Hanwei
Enterprise Group.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 30, China’s state media
reported that the industrial chemical melamine is commonly added to
animal feed in China to make it appear higher in protein. This appeared
to be a tacit admission by the government that contamination is
widespread in the country's food supply.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Nov 12, Hong Kong officials
said they had found elevated levels of melamine in fish feed from
China’s Fuzhou Haima Feed Co.
(WSJ, 11/13/08, p.A13)
2008 Nov 13, US Federal health
officials slapped a sweeping detention order on dozens of imported
foods from China, from snacks and drinks to chocolates and candies. The
agency said the action was needed as a precaution to keep out foods
contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine, which can cause
serious kidney problems.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 15, Gazans seeking food
aid walked away empty-handed from locked United Nations distribution
centers after a strict Israeli border closure depleted UN food reserves.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 19, The UN asked for $7
billion (5.5 billion euros) to fund its humanitarian work around the
world in 2009, almost double last year's appeal as a result of soaring
food prices and crises in Africa, among other factors. The UN's food
agency will slim down its bureaucracy, work to cut costs and make
investments that will improve efficiency as part of a reform plan
adopted by member nations.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 19, The World Food
Program said that it has signed a new food aid deal to allow the UN
agency to provide 350,000 tons of grain to millions in Zimbabwe.
(AFP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 19, In Haiti Max Cosci of
Doctors Without Borders said at least 26 children had died over a
two-week period in the remote, southeastern area of Baie d'Orange. The
UN World Food Program says it is sending medical and food aid to the
region.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 27, South Korea's
supermarket chains resumed selling US beef, nearly five months after
the government lifted an import ban imposed over fears of mad cow
disease.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Dec 1, China's Health
Ministry said six babies may have died after consuming tainted milk
powder, up from a previous official toll of three, and announced a
six-fold increase in its tally of infants sickened in the scandal, to
nearly 300,000.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 15, In China substances
commonly used as industrial dyes, insecticides and drain cleaners were
included on a list of illegal food additives released as part of a
months long government crackdown aimed at improving the country's
shoddy food safety record.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 24, Mexico began blocking
imports of meat from at least 30 US meat processing plants due to a new
US law that required food retailers to label or display the country of
origin for meat, produce and certain kinds of nuts. The law, effective
as of Sep 30, was part of the 2008 Farm Bill.
(WSJ, 12/27/08, p.A7)
2008 Dec 31, Tian Wenhua, former
chairwoman of the Sanlu Group, one of China’s biggest dairy producers,
pleaded guilty to selling fake and substandard milk powder.
(SFC, 1/1/09, p.A3)
2008 Maria Balinska authored “The
Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread.”
(WSJ, 11/29/08, p.W11)
2008 Betty Fussell (70) authored
“Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef.”
(SFC, 11/18/08, p.E5)
2008 Marion Nestle authored “Pet
Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine,” which illuminates the
connections between the food supplies of humans, farm animals and
pets.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.97)
2008 John Reader authored
“Propitious Esculent: The Potato in World History.”
(Econ, 3/1/08, p.92)
2008 Indonesia achieved rice
self-sufficiency for the first time in 24 years.
(Econ, 1/10/09, p.38)
2009 Jan 12, Minnesota officials
said lab tests had confirmed salmonella bacteria in a five pound
container of King Nut brand peanut butter. King Nut of Solon, Ohio, had
recalled the product on January 10. At least 6 people had been killed
and over 470 sickened nationwide in 43 states.
(WSJ, 1/13/09, p.A2)(SFC, 1/20/09, p.A12)
2009 Jan 12, In China a Shanghai
distributor of a popular brand of dog food said it had suspended sales
of the product following reports that dogs who ate it had died from
aflatoxin poisoning. This appeared to involve an imported product,
Optima, a brand of dog food made by Nashville, Tennessee-based Doane
Pet Care Co. It was not clear if the pet food sold in China was the US
brand.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 16, Kellogg Co. of Battle
Creek, Mich., recalled 16 products containing peanut butter due to
possible salmonella contamination as federal officials confirmed
contamination at a Georgia facility that ships peanut products to 85
food companies. On Jan 21 federal health authorities confirmed that
peanut butter and paste made by a Virginia company were the sole
sources of the outbreak. The Blakely, Ga., facility was owned by Peanut
Corp. of America, based in Lynchburg, Va.
(SFC, 1/17/09, p.A2)(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 16, Kenya's president
declared the country's food crisis a national disaster and asked
international donors to contribute $406 million toward emergency food
aid.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 28, Peanut Corp. expanded
its recall to all peanut products produced at its Blakely, Ga., plant
since Jan 1, 2007, due to a salmonella outbreak.
(SFC, 1/29/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 30, Ethiopia said that
4.9 million of its people will need emergency food aid in the first six
months of 2009 due to drought and appealed for $390 million from donors
to pay for it.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 17, The UN said some 4.9
million more Ethiopians are in urgent need of food aid, bringing the
total number of people in Ethiopia who need relief aid to 12 million,
or 15 percent of the population.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 23, China’s state media
said pig organs contaminated by a banned animal feed additive have been
blamed for sickening at least 70 people in southern China. The pig
organs tainted by the steroid clenbuterol were sold last week in
markets in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. Another 14
cases in Guangzhou were reported on Feb 25.
(AP, 2/23/09)(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 28, China's legislature
enacted a tough new food safety law, promising tougher penalties for
makers of tainted products in the wake of scandals that exposed serious
flaws in monitoring of the nation's food supply.
(AP, 2/2809)
2009 Mar 6, Mexico published a new
law allowing the planting of genetically modified corn for experimental
reasons.
(SFC, 3/7/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 14, President Barack
Obama said the nation's decades-old food safety system is a "hazard to
public health" and in need of an overhau. Obama used his weekly radio
and video address to announce the nomination of former New York City
Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg as FDA commissioner, and his
choice of Baltimore Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein as her deputy.
(AP, 3/14/09)
2009 Mar 24, Kraft Foods Inc.
notified the FDA that it had detected salmonella in roasted pistachios
through routine product testing. Kraft and the Georgia Nut Co. recalled
their Back to Nature Nantucket Blend trail mix the next day. The FDA
contacted California-based Setton Pistachio and California health
officials shortly afterward. California alone is the second-largest
producer of pistachios in the world.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Mar 31, In China and official
said police have arrested nine people and revoked the license of a
livestock market owner in a case involving pork tainted with a chemical
that made 70 people sick in Guangzhou, southern China's biggest city.
Investigators determined the pork was tainted with clenbuterol and
ractopamine, banned chemicals used to make animals develop more muscle
and less fat.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Apr 2, The US Environmental
Working Group issued a press release drawing attention to a study by
scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which
looked for the chemical, perchlorate, in different brands of powdered
baby formula. The study was published last month.
(AP, 4/3/09)
2009 May 4, Dom DeLuise (b.1933),
film and TV actor, died. Though lighthearted onscreen, the prolific
actor was deeply passionate about food, forging a second career as a
popular chef and cookbook author.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 14, Scientists reported
that ginger, long used as a folk remedy for stomach aches, limits
nausea caused by chemotherapy used in cancer treatments.
(SFC, 5/15/09, p.A14)
2009 Jun 7, Egypt's public
prosecutor ordered the return of a shipment of Russian wheat impounded
last month on health grounds. The decision to ship back the 52,000 tons
of wheat, worth 9.6 million dollars (6.8 million euros), came after an
investigation found the grain was contaminated with insects and
unspecified heavy metals.
(AFP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 19, The UN Food and
Agriculture Organization said one in six people in the world, or more
than 1 billion, is now hungry, a historic high due largely to the
global economic crisis and stubbornly high food prices.
(AP, 6/19/09)
2009 Jul 4, Joey Chestnut (25), of
San Jose, Ca., ate a record 68 hot dogs capturing his 3rd straight
Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Int’l. Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney
Island, NYC.
(SSFC, 7/5/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 10, A US plant scientists
said late blight, which caused the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and
1850s, is killing potato and tomato plants in home gardens from Maine
to Ohio and threatening commercial and organic farms.
(Reuters, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 17, Russia said it would
lift a ban on live pigs and raw pork imports from the US state of
Wisconsin and Canada's Ontario province from July 18 due to what it
said was a "stabilization" of the situation of the H1N1 virus in those
places.
(Reuters, 7/17/09)
2009 Aug 25, The World Food
Program said that 3.8 million Kenyans need emergency food aid because
of a prolonged drought, which is even causing electrical blackouts in
the capital because there's not enough water for hydroelectric plants.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Mark Caro authored “The Foie
Gras Wars: How a 5,000-Year-Old Delicacy Inspired the World’s Fiercest
Food fight.”
(SSFC, 3/22/09, Books p.J5)
2009 Brad Kessler authored “Goat
Song: A Seasonal Life, A short History of Herding and the Art of Making
Cheese.
(Econ, 7/4/09, p.81)
2009 Mark Kurlansky authored “The
Food of a Younger Land: A Portrait of American Food from the Lost WPA
Files,” an anthology of food writing from 1930s America.
(Econ, 5/30/09, p.86)
2009 Tom Standage authored “An
Edible History of Humanity.”
(SSFC, 6/7/09, books p.J4)
2009 Richard Wrangham authored
“Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human.”
(SSFC, 6/7/09, books p.J4)
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Subject = Food
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