Crossword Dictionary
Kraft
Kraft Foods, division and brand of Kraft Heinz Company, one of the world’s largest food and beverage manufacturers that was formed by the 2015 merger of Kraft Foods Group and H.J. Heinz Holding Corporation. Kraft Foods’ headquarters are in Northfield, Illinois.
Kraft grew out of a wholesale cheese-delivery business established in Chicago in 1903 by James L. Kraft. Three years later he and his brother Charles began processing cheese for distribution to area retailers. Two other brothers later joined the firm, and in 1909 it was incorporated as J.L. Kraft Bros. & Company. The brothers patented a spoil-resistant processed cheese, which was sold in great quantities to the U.S. Army during World War I. In 1930 the company was acquired by National Dairy Products Corporation (established 1923), which adopted the names Kraftco Corporation in 1969 and Kraft, Inc., in 1976.
Some of Kraft’s most popular products included Kraft cheese, Milka and Toblerone chocolates, Philadelphia cream cheese, Planters nuts, Jell-O desserts, Kool-Aid powdered beverages, Jacobs and Maxwell House coffees, Lu biscuits, Nabisco cookies and crackers, Oscar Mayer meats, and Cadbury Creme Egg and Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates.