Nabisco Brands

Nabisco, once a mighty cookie and cracker company, exists today only as a brand name, part of global conglomerate Kraft Foods.

In 1889 William Moore united six eastern bakeries into the New York Biscuit Company. In 1890 Adolphus Green united forty midwestern bakeries under the name the American Biscuit & Manufacturing Company.

In 1898 Moore and Green together with John G. Zeller of Richmond Steam Bakery formed the National Biscuit Company.

This merger ended the cutthroat competition among the companies. The new entity dominated the cracker and cookie industry.

By the early 1940s, the company had 59 manufacturing facilities across the country producing some 200 products.

In 1971 the National Biscuit Company changed its name to Nabisco, Inc.  In 1981 Ross Johnson of Standard Brands instrumental the merging of Nabisco with Standard Brands Incorporated to become Nabisco Brands, Inc.

In 1985 RJ Reynolds Industries, Inc., in an attempt to reduce its reliance on tobacco, acquired Nabisco brands, Inc. The acquisition created the largest consumer goods company in the United States.

A year later, in 1986, RJ Reynolds Industries Inc. changed its name to RJR Nabisco, Inc. and RJR’s Del Monte and Nabisco Brands operations were combined to form Nabisco Brands, Inc.

Philip Morris Companies, Inc. acquired Nabisco in December 2000 for $18.9 billion and merged it with Kraft Foods.

Eventually Kraft Foods was spun off into a separate company where Nabisco lives on as a brand name.

In 2010 Kraft Foods announced that it was making its Nabisco line of crackers healthier by adding more whole wheat.
Nabisco Brands

History of Oreo biscuit

Oreos are America’s top selling cookie, favorites for almost 100 years. In 1912, National Biscuit Company developed Oreo as a biscuit.

It was introduced to compete with Hydrox Biscuit Bonbons, which had been launched by Sunshine Biscuit brand two years earlier.

Both brands Oreo and Hydrox biscuits were round dark chocolate sandwich cookies with a vanilla cream filling.

Hydrox cookie lost market share to Nabisco and was withdrawn in 1999. Oreos were packaged in tins with glass tops for easy viewing and sold for 25 cents a pound.

Oreo is a derivative from the French word for gold or the Greek word meaning hill. Made in Nabisco’s Chelsea factory in New York City, Oreos were initially aimed at the British market.

The first Oreos came filled with two different flavors – lemon meringue and cream. In 1974, Nabisco officially changed the name of the product to Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookies.

The original Oreo was made with lard and thus had excessive saturated fat. Oreo switched to transfats in 1992 without affecting the taste and texture.

During the 1990s, Nabisco introduced a variety of new ‘Oreo’ products, such as a lower calorie version of Oreos.

In 2000, Nabisco was acquired by Kraft Foods Inc. In 2007 Kraft changes the shape of the Oreo for the first time in its 95 year history.
History of Oreo biscuit