1945 - Food And Drink

Food And Drink

Some 85 percent of U.S. bread is commercially baked, up from 66 percent in 1939.

Returning GIs tell their wives, mothers, sisters, and girlfriends that they never want to see another can of Spam (see 1943), but the luncheon meat will continue to enjoy some popularity.

C. A. Swanson & Sons at Omaha begins to develop a line of canned and frozen chicken and turkey products under the Swanson label, using experience gained in World War II, when nearly all of the firm's poultry was shipped to the armed forces. Called the Jerpe Commission Co. until now, the 45-year-old company has been owned since 1928 by Carl A. Swanson (see "TV Dinners," 1953).

Blevins Popcorn Co. is founded at Nashville, Tenn., by Birmingham, Ala.-born food broker James V. (Victor) Blevins, 34, who signs a Tennessee movie-theater chain to make him its sole supplier and provides it with a fluffier hybrid corn that enables concessionaires to get more bulk for every ounce of popping kernels. Extending sales beyond the state by offering ready-to-pop packaging and a low-fat buttery seasoning, Blevins will introduce his product to Japanese baseball bleachers before selling the business in 1961. It will move to Tampa, Fla., and grow to become the largest supplier of movie-theater concessions before being forced into bankruptcy in 1995.

A U.S. research team pioneers frozen orange juice, using knowledge gained in wartime production of powdered orange juice (see 1942). Working since 1942 at a laboratory provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Lakeland, Fla., the researchers develop an easily frozen sludge of concentrated juice that can be reconstituted to taste far more like fresh-squeezed juice than does ordinary canned juice (see 1946).

The U.S. Army awards a contract for orange juice powder to the National Research Corp., which has adapted an evaporation technique, developed originally for penicillin by a Cambridge, Mass., firm, to concentrate citrus juice, hold it in cold storage, and dry it (see 1942). NRC president John M. Fox, 32, obtains plant financing from investors August 6, just before America drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. While trying to eliminate problems involved in drying his product, he sets out to find consumer markets for frozen orange juice concentrate (see 1942); (see Minute Maid, 1947).

Coca-Cola Company registers the name "Coke" as a trademark (see 1942). The company has sold more than 6 billion bottles to servicemen since 1942, widening its lead over Pepsi-Cola by two to one (see 1955).

Chocolate-bar pioneer Milton S. Hershey dies at Hershey, Pa., October 13 at age 88, having willed his fortune to helping disadvantaged children.