Food Company Danone

In 1919, Isaac Carasso created a simple food with a simple aim to improve health: mixing ferments and fresh milk, he made a yogurt that he affectionately named ‘Danone’ after his son, Daniel Carasso. He was inspired by the immunologist Elie Metchnikoff’s research at the Institut Pasteur into the role of ferments in gut and overall health.

The yogurt was packaged in porcelain pots, which Carasso hand-delivered as a health food to pharmacies across the city.

One decade later, Daniel joined the family business and successfully expanded Danone across France. In the late 1930s, with Europe once again on the brink of war, he decided to move to the United States and he established the company as ‘Dannon’ there.

In 1951, Daniel Carasso returned to Paris to manage the family's businesses in France and Spain, and the American business was sold to Beatrice Foods in 1959; it was repurchased by Danone in 1981.

In Europe in 1967, Danone merged with Gervais, the leading fresh cheese producer in France, and became Gervais Danone. In 1973, the company merged with bottle maker BSN.

Back date to 1966, the French glass manufacturers, Glaces de Boussois and Verrerie Souchon Neuvesel, merged to form Boussois Souchon Neuvesel, or BSN. Initially, Danone was involved in several industries such as beer, frozen food and biscuits.

In 1973, BSN merged with Gervais Danone, a French food and beverage group specialized in dairy and pasta products, becoming the largest food and beverage group in France.

The company changed in 1999 their corporation name from “BSN” to “Groupe Danone” (since 2009, just DANONE) and from 2000 on, they sold all their beer companies and, later they also left some activities like sauces and cereals in order to focus on more healthy production.

In the early 1990s, Danone made international growth a major priority by penetrating new markets in locations such as China and Eastern Europe by acquiring well known brands in their respective countries such as China’s ‘Amoy’, a producer of soy sauces and frozen foods.
Food Company Danone

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

Keebler Company

Godfrey Keebler opened a neighborhood bakery in Philadelphia in 1853. The bakery grew quickly, and he brought his sons into the business.

By the beginning of the twentieth century Keebler products were distributed regionally and it slowly expanded its operations.

In 1924 Keebler joined with other bakeries to form the United Biscuit Company which was a federation of cracker and cookie manufacturers, in order to compete effectively with the rival National Biscuit Company (Nabisco)

By 1944 United Biscuit consisted of sixteen bakeries located from Philadelphia to Salt Lake City.

In 1966 Keebler Company became the official corporate name and the brand name for all of its products. By the 1990s, Keebler was the second-largest manufacturer of cookies and crackers in America.

Keebler’s brands name includes Cheez-It, Chips Deluxe, Famous Amos, Fudge Shoppe, Keebler, Plantation, Sunshine and Town House.

Keebler was acquired by the Kellogg Company in 2001. Today The Keebler Company remains the largest cookie and cracker manufacturer in the United States.
Keebler Company

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