Origin of Cool Whip

Cool Whip is an artificial product intended to mimic whipped cream, composed mainly of water, hydrogenated vegetable oil, and high fructose corn syrup. The key advantage of Cool Whip is that it is a whipped cream-like product that could be distributed in a frozen state by grocery chains and kept in the consumer’s refrigerator.

Cool Whip was invented sometime prior to 1966, when it was first introduced to the market, by Dr William A. Mitchell, a food chemist in General Food’s Birds Eye division from 1941 to 1976. Birds Eye test-marketed Cool-Whip in April 1966 in Seattle and Buffalo; because it was ‘a city where usage of fresh whipped cream is high’.

Cool Whip was a huge success. By Christmas 1966, 60 percent of the housewife who had sampled Cool Whip had made a repeat purchase.

Within two years of its introduction Cool Whip became the largest and most profitable product in the Birds Eye line of products.

Cool Whip was probably marketed by Bird Eye to compete with Kraft’s Dream Whip Topping Mix, which had been introduced in 1957, nearly a decade earlier than Cool Whip.

Birds Eye later merged with Kraft Foods and Philip Morris, eventually becoming part of Altria Group until the spin-off Kraft Foods from Altria in 2012.

In a product diversification strategy, Cook Whip rolled out a line of frozen frostings in 2012. The flavors were chocolate, vanilla, and cream cheese.
Origin of Cool Whip

The history of General Foods Corporation

During 1980s, wheat was widely used in United States as an ingredient of coffee substitutes. The Postum Company, maker of Post cereals was launched in 1895 by Charles W. Post. The company was created to market Postum, a coffee substitute made out of wheat bran and molasses.

It was probably the first coffee-substitute extract to be manufactured on an industrial scale.

He called his health drink Postum. In 1897 Post marketed a breakfast cereal called Grape-Nuts, and in 1904 these was followed with corn based cereal Post Toasties.

In 1914, his daughter Marjorie Merriweather Post inherited the company. Her husband Edward F. Hutton the financier took over Postum Cereal.

During the 1920s, Postum went on buying spree, acquiring such companies as Baker’s chocolate and Jell-O. Maxwell House was added in 1928.

The following year, Hutton acquired Clarence Birdseye’s General Seafood Company and then named the new conglomerate General Food. Company management concluded that because the Postum was closely associated with cereal, the company need another name to encompass these new subsidiary. In 1929, Postum Cereal company changed its corporate name to General Foods.

For most of the 20th century, the General Foods Company was recognizable national brand along with General Mills and General Electric.

In 1985 Philip Morris acquired General Foods. With the acquisition of General Foods, Philip Morris became the largest consumer products company in the United States, with $23 billion in annual sales. In 1988 Philip Morris buys Kraft, Inc for $12.9 billion.

Four years later, General Foods was merged with Kraft, to create Kraft General Foods. In 1995, the name was shortened to Kraft Food Inc.
The history of General Foods Corporation