United Fruit Company: Corporate Power and Political Influence in Latin America

The United Fruit Company, an American multinational corporation, was established in 1899 through the merger of the Boston Fruit Company and Minor C. Keith’s banana-trading enterprises. Minor C. Keith played a crucial role in the company’s formation, having built railroads in Costa Rica and established extensive banana plantations along the rail routes. This early infrastructure laid the foundation for United Fruit’s dominance in the banana trade. With the merger, the company quickly became a monopolistic force, controlling vast territories and transportation networks across Central America, the Caribbean, and parts of South America.

United Fruit not only established banana plantations but also built critical infrastructure such as railroads, ports, and telegraph lines to facilitate the export of bananas to the United States and Europe. This infrastructure development became central to the economies of the regions in which the company operated. However, the heavy reliance on United Fruit’s business often led to economic and political manipulation. Local economies were restructured to prioritize banana production over other forms of agriculture, which contributed to economic dependency on the company. This dominance gave rise to the term “banana republics,” describing countries where United Fruit’s influence was so pervasive that it shaped national policies, often to the detriment of the local population. Governments became heavily influenced or controlled by the company, leading to an erosion of sovereignty in many countries.

The company’s practices attracted increasing criticism for labor exploitation and political interference. Workers on United Fruit’s plantations faced harsh conditions, including low wages, long hours, and poor living standards. Labor movements and strikes were often suppressed, sometimes violently. The company’s involvement in the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état, where it allegedly worked with the CIA to overthrow President Jacobo Árbenz after he attempted to redistribute unused land owned by United Fruit, remains one of the most infamous examples of corporate-political entanglement.

In 1970, United Fruit merged with AMK to form the United Brands Company, which was later renamed Chiquita Brands International in 1984. Despite its controversial history, United Fruit’s legacy continues to influence the global banana industry and the economic landscapes of many Latin American nations. The company’s rise and fall serve as a key case study in the intersection of corporate power and political influence in developing countries.
United Fruit Company: Corporate Power and Political Influence in Latin America

Douwe Egberts: A Legacy of Quality and Tradition in Coffee

Douwe Egberts, one of the world's most iconic coffee brands, has cultivated a legacy of excellence and innovation since its humble beginnings in 1753. Founded by Egbert Douwes and Akke Thijsses in the Dutch village of Joure, the business originated as a small grocery store named "De Witte Os" (The White Ox). The store specialized in products that "add to the pleasures of daily existence," including coffee, tea, and tobacco.

The business thrived locally, and in 1780, their son Douwe Egberts joined the enterprise, marking a pivotal moment in its history. Under Douwe's stewardship, the brand transitioned from a small-town operation to a regional player, laying the groundwork for future growth. By the early 20th century, Douwe Egberts had firmly established itself as a household name in the Netherlands.

A landmark moment came in 1925 when the brand introduced its now-famous red seal featuring the initials "D.E.," signifying quality and tradition. That same era saw the launch of the Douwe Egberts savings system, a loyalty program that resonated with Dutch consumers and bolstered brand loyalty.

Throughout the 20th century, Douwe Egberts demonstrated an uncanny ability to adapt and innovate. In 1978, the company launched Moccona, a premium brand of instant coffee, which quickly gained international acclaim. This expansion into the instant coffee market symbolized the company's ability to balance tradition with modern consumer demands.

The brand’s influence continued to grow globally, culminating in its acquisition by JAB Holding Company in 2013. Today, Douwe Egberts operates under JDE Peet’s, one of the largest coffee and tea companies worldwide, with a presence in over 100 countries. JDE Peet’s has prioritized sustainability, aligning Douwe Egberts with global efforts to combat climate change and support ethical coffee sourcing. Initiatives such as Rainforest Alliance certification and reduced carbon emissions underscore the brand’s commitment to a sustainable future.

Douwe Egberts remains a testament to its founders' vision of enhancing daily life through quality products. With over 270 years of heritage, it continues to evolve while preserving its rich traditions, resonating with coffee lovers across the globe.
Douwe Egberts: A Legacy of Quality and Tradition in Coffee

Bertman Original Ballpark Mustard

Bertman Foods Co. was started in the 1920’s by Joseph “Joe” Bertman. Born in Lublin, Poland in 1902, Joseph Bertman was 6 when he immigrated to Cleveland.

He began the company in a garage at the Bertman home at East 147th Street near Kinsman, where spices and pickles were processed and packaged. He would rise at 4 a.m. every morning to begin peddling his products.

Bertman was an old-fashioned businessman who could be making sales calls, loading trucks, reviewing books, or buying produce on any day. The firm relocated to 653 E. 103th Street by the mid-1930s, and was then known as the Bertman Pickle Co. Bertman supplied food products to a variety of institutions, caterers, and ball parks -- including League Park and later to Cleveland Municipal Stadium, home to the Cleveland Indians.

Bertman's Original Ball Park Mustard is the company's best-known product. Bertman wasn't satisfied with the yellow mustard being served at Cleveland's League Park, then the home of the Cleveland Indians. So, he came up with something new. Bertman Original Ball Park Mustard was born -- and the recipe's remained the same ever since.

“Ballpark mustard” has been a fixture at the city’s baseball games since the 1930s, making its path through the various homes of the Cleveland Indians and finding its way into everything from grilled cheese sandwiches to homemade barbecue sauces at the city’s various restaurants today.

Until the early 1970s it was only sold in gallons, but afterwards was carried by supermarkets. It was available at the Cleveland Stadium as well as the new baseball park.

Bertman himself said Cleveland Stadium was his first customer in 1932, but some sources indicate the mustard was first sold at League Park baseball games in 1938.
Bertman Original Ballpark Mustard

McCormick & Company, Inc

The company was started by Willoughby McCormick in 1889 in a one-room basement and is now a close-to $4 billion global company. He began selling herbs and spices extract on the street of Baltimore.

He bought a spice company in 1896 and began importing and exporting spices, herbs, seasonings and other products.

In the aftermath of the crash of 1929, the company’s fortunes took a turn for the worse. Profits turned to losses. In 1932 at the height of the Depression, Willoughby died. The board of McCormick & Company elected Charlie McCormick as president.

In the 1990s, McCormick redefined itself from an herb and spice maker to a ‘flavoring company’ and addressed the needs of time-pressed working families by introducing seasoning  mixes, trying to capture the market for gourmet cooking and marketed more aggressively to industrial customers.

On June 8, 2006, McCormick & Company announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to purchase the assets of Epicurean International for $97 million in cash.

In 2008 the company acquired Lawry’s brand of seasonings and marinades.
McCormick & Company, Inc

Asher’s Chocolates

Chester A. Asher, a Scottish emigrated from Canada in 1890 and founded the business two years later. His started his candy business in 1892. The factory was in the center city of Philadelphia.

In an effort to capitalize on its popularity, in 1898, the firm relocated to the Germantown section of the city. Asher’s Chocolates remained in Germantown for more than nine decades, expanding over the years to occupy several buildings.

By 1910, he built a three storey brick juice factory juice behind his store and candy production factory.

Chester A. Asher’s four sons ran the company until 1966, when third generation Asher’s John L. Jr. and Robert took over.

The company slowly declined until it was declared to be ’tw0 weeks from bankruptcy’ in 1966. The third generation Asher aggressive sales and production program, the company produced sand sales more than 3.33 million pounds of candy.

By 1997, Asher’s Chocolate generated between $20 million and $25 million in revenues.

In 1998, the company moved its factory, shipping and offices to a new 125,000 square foot facility in Souderton.

Robert and Jack Asher, and great-grandsons David and Jeff Asher, who are cousins, co-own the business today.  Today Asher’s Chocolates employs 250 people, 180 at the Souderton location, who produce 8,000,000 pounds of candy per year.
Asher’s Chocolates

History of Pop-Tarts

In 1963 Post Cereals released their first product of breakfast cereals, Country Squares to the public. This was part of long term goal set by Post, which was to develop non cereal products after World War II that did not require refrigeration.

To counter Post Cereal’s Country Squares Kellogg came up with product that was initially called a Fruit Scone. It was designed to expand the range of items that could be cooked in a toaster.

The name was changed to Pop-Tart, which was inspired by the pop-art movement. Pop-Tarts have sugary fillings, which are sealed inside two layers of a pastry crust. Pop-Tarts were sold in the grocery stores in Cleveland, Ohio, Kellogg’s instructed store managers to stock the Pop-Tarts in the baked goods or baking supplies aisle and not in the cereal aisle, because they did not want Pop-Tarts to be substituted for cereal.

Post Cereals’ Country Squares failed to take off, but Pop-Tarts sakes were extremely successful when they were released in 1964. Pop-Tarts rapidly grew popular because of television commercial for them that featured a talking cartoon named Milton.

Over the years, some of the delicious flavors of Pop-Tarts have included Blueberry, Cherry Strawberry, Grape, Raspberry, Apple Cinnamon, Brown Sugar, Chocolate Fudge, Vanilla Crème, S’mores, and Peanut Butter and Jelly.

As of 2011, Kellogg produced thirty flavors of Pop-Tarts. The most popular flavors are frosted strawberry and frosted brown sugar cinnamon.
History of Pop-Tarts 

Arbuckles’

In 1859 John Arbuckle, a Pittsburgh grocer entered the wholesale grocery business, McDonald and Arbuckle, begun by his brother Charles, his uncle Duncan McDonald, and his friend William Roseburg.

McDonald and Roseburg retired from the firm a few years later leaving the business on the hands of the two yourthfull John and Charles assumed charge. Under the firm name Arbuckles & OC., soon made their firm one of the important wholesale grocery houses in Pennsylvania.

In 1864, John Arbuckle, then twenty one, bought a coffee roaster. He sold his coffee in little packages that were widely mocked by competitors due to their resemblance to peanut bags.

By 1868 John Arbuckle’s formula for a tasty roasted coffee and his keen business expertise had revolutionized the coffee industry.

A good cup of coffee meant daily roasting until 1868, when Arbuckle perfected a glutinous mixture made of Irish moss, gelatin, isinglass, white sugar and eggs for preserving the freshness of roast coffee.

Early in the seventies, the great business opportunities of New York City had attracted the two brothers and a branch was established in New York in charge of john Arbuckle, the main business in Pittsburg being left in the charge of his brother Charles.

Arbuckles’ was so successful that in the 1880s the company established branches in Kansas City and Chicago as well as ports in Brazil and Mexico.

In 1937 the General Foods Corporation acquired a number of Arbuckle Brothers brand names, including Yuban.
Arbuckles’

History of Frito-Lay

The Frito Company
Corn chips, which are derived from corn masa like that used in tortillas, were originally developed by Gustavo Olguin. Charles Elmer Doolin worked for him as a fry cook for a short time.

In 1932, Charles Elmer Doolin purchased a Gustavo’s corn chip recipe, a handheld potato ricer and 19 retail accounts for $100. Doolin set his new business venture in his mother’s kitchen. Because there was no money for hiring employees his family helped him.

In 1933, the fritos production was increased by designing a ‘hammer’ pres and the company continued to expand.

In 1945, The Frito Sales Company was established, which separated sales from production activities. Expansion by the Frito National Company continued with issues of six franchises in 1945.

H. W Lay & Company
Herman W. Lay was a salesman for Sunshine Biscuit Company, but during the Depression he lost his job.

In 1932 Lay was hired by Barrel Foods a snack food firm in Atlanta Georgia, and began selling peanut butter sandwiches in southern Kentucky and Tennessee. His job is to sell and make deliveries for the company by his model A Ford touring car.

Lay was an aggressive business and began acquiring distributorships. As his territories expanded, his profits arise. When Barrett’s founder died in 1937, Lay bought the company, which included plants in Atlanta and Memphis, Tennessee.  He changed the company name onto H. W Lay Co. Inc on October 2, 1939.

By end of the World War II, Lay’s had become a major regional produce of snack food. After the war Lay automated his potato chip manufacturing business and diversified its products.

Popcorn, manufactured in Nashville, Tennessee, was the first product to have the ‘Lay’s’ brand name. Lay also manufactured potato chips.

Frito Lay Incorporation
In 1945, Lay met Elmer Doolin. Doolin franchised Herman Lay a license to distribute Fritos.  The two companies also cooperated on other products.

In September 1961, The Frito Company and H. W Lay & Company merged to become Frito-Lay, Inc.

On June 8, 1965, the merger of Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola Company was granted by shareholders of both companies, and a new company called PepsiCo, Inc was form.

By the end of the 1960s, Frito –Lay was the dominant company in the snack world.
History of Frito-Lay

History of Jell-O

Jell-O is the brand name of a dessert mix of colored and favored sugar and crystallized gelatin, made by Kraft Foods, Inc.

Gelatin was prepared long before Jell-O was introduced in 1897.  The quivering gelatin was originally patented in 1845 as a packaged dessert with instructions by American inventor, philanthropist, and industrialist Peter Copper. It was Pearle Bixby Wait of Le Roy in 1897, however, who jazzed up the gelatin with color and flavor to create a stand-alone dessert mix.

Wait was a carpenter and cough medicine manufacturer who was always looking for ways to supplement his income.

It is said that Wait first formulated this popular dessert at his kitchen table and Wait’s wife, May named the product Jell-O by attaching to the word ‘jell’ the ‘O’ a popular ending for product names at the time.

In 1899, Jell-O went into production, and the first four flavors - strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon – rolled off the line.

Over the next sixty-five years Jell-O and Le Roy became synonymous as the kitchen- table recipe conquered the world.

In 1899, the Jell-O Company was bought by Orator Woodward of Genesee Pure Food for $450, whose pioneering marketing, advertising, and name recognition campaigns are still studied and copied today.

Two years later Woodward introduced Jell-O Girl and sent horse-drawn wagons to rural communities to promote the new product.

In 1902, the company produced the first of a subsequent flood of Jell-O recipe booklet. Woodward died in 1906, and within a year Jell-O was grossing $1 million a year.

By 1923, sales so dominated the Genesee Pure Food Company that the firm’s name changed to the Jell-O Company. In 1925 the company was sold to a Postum for an exchange of stock valued at $84 million.
History of Jell-O

History of Chicken Delight

A.L Tunick, a scrap dealer, started his restaurant business when his wrecking company, dismantling a factory building came into possession of a large inventory of abandoned cookers.

Using pressurized oil fryers to cook his chicken quickly Tunick founded his Chicken Delight in Illinois in 1952. He decided to market this method though small take-out outlets and his was the first fast food chain to offer home delivery.

He began franchising his operation and it grew quickly. Tunick expanded into Canada in 1958 and by the mid 1960s Chicken Delight of Canada; Ltd had more than 50 outlets.

Chicken Delight licensed several hundred franchisees to operate its stores. It did not charge its franchisees a franchise fee or royalties; rather, it allowed its franchisees to use its trademark and follow its business methods in exchange for purchasing their cooking equipment and certain supplies from Chicken Delight.

By 1984, Chicken Delight was Canadian-owned with 86 outlets in the United States and 34 in Canada.
History of Chicken Delight

German Mills American Oatmeal Company

In 1850, Ferdinand Schumacher, a German settler, opened a grocery store in Akron, Ohio. His major customers were German and Irish immigrants, and they bought a lot of oats.

He started the cereals turnaround in 1854 with a hand grains grinder in the back area of his not so large store, which produced 20 180-Ib barrels of oatmeal daily with a water-powered stone mill. His plan was to introduce steel-cut oats to the American diet at a time when oats were considered inappropriate for anything but horses.

His German Mills American Oatmeal Company was the nation’s foremost profit-oriented gruel producer. Sales were brisk, particularly to cities with large immigrant populations so Schumacher opened additional mills to meet the increasing demand in 1883.

In 1877, Schumacher embraced the Quaker sign the foremost recorded brand for a morning meal breakfast food.

In 1878 Schumacher imported porcelain rollers from England to manufacture rolled oats.

In the early of 1860s, during the Civil War, the government found oats to be relatively inexpensive, accessible and nourishing and ordered hundreds of barrels from him to fortify the Union troops.

When the war ceased in 1865, oats were becoming an increasingly familiar commodity on American breakfast tables. German Mills American Oatmeal Company would later merge several times with other companies, with the result being the Quaker Oats Company.
German Mills American Oatmeal Company

Early History of Cadbury chocolate

John Cadbury started Cadbury Limited in 1831. He first opened a grocery store in Birmingham in 1824 before selling chocolate and cocoa beverages in 1831.  In 1861, George Cadbury and his brother Richard inherited the company from their parents with only 12 employees and built it into one of the world’s largest.

An important turning point for the company occurred in 1866, when it introduced a process for pressing the cocoa butter from the coca bean.

The addition of cocoa presses at Cadbury produced a reduced fat cocoa powder that the company named Cocoa Essence, which became an immediate success. The process was considered a trade secret.

By 1879 the firm had grown so successful that George Cadbury built what came to be known as the ‘factory in a garden’ on a parklike property in Bourneville, England.

Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate was developed and launched in the early 1905 and similar products by many other manufacturers followed. It remains a favorite of UK customers to this day.

In 1916, Cadbury decided to package the products into ½ lb, rather plainly decorated boxes and soon had a runaway success on their hands from the much more popular-tasting Milk Tray.
Early History of Cadbury chocolate

History of pancakes in United States

The prototypical American pancakes probably arrived with the earliest English and Dutch settlers, whose pancake traditions dated back to at least the fifteenth century and possibly as far back as prehistoric times.

New Englanders called them flapjacks in honor of the custom of flipping them in the pan with a flick of the wrist.

Pancakes became signature dishes at some casual restaurant chains. In 1889 International House of Pancake was launched in a Los Angeles suburb.

The popularity of pancake restaurants or pancake houses serve packages to suit every taste and time of day, from sweet to savory from breakfast to dinner.

Pancakes became part of fast food breakfast menus in the 1970s, when Jim Delligati, an early MacDonald’s franchisee in Pittsburgh began serving a simple breakfast menu, which included pancakes.

In 1899 Chris L. Rutt and Charles G. Underwood introduced the first ready-mixed commercial food product, which was later renamed Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix.

In the late 1930s, Henri Charpentier, a French chef, brought the recipe for his crepe Suzette with him when he immigrated to the United States.

He is credited with popularizing the French pancake in America. At first they were served with butter, sugar and citrus juice or liqueur. But Americans soon were using maple-flavored syrup and filling them with savory fruits or even chocolate chips.

In 2003 MacDonald’s introduced the McGriddle, which is bacon or a pork sausage wrapped in pancake with syrup.

Later Burger King introduced the Ultimate Breakfast Platter, composed of scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, a biscuits and three pancakes with syrup.
History of pancakes in United States