Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation is a

baby food Baby food is any soft easily consumed food other than breastmilk or infant formula that is made specifically for human babies between four and six months and two years old. The food comes in many varieties and flavors that are purchased ready-mad ...

company owned by the Swiss branded consumer-goods firm Hero Group.

History

Beech-Nut's roots go back to 1891, to the

Mohawk Valley The Mohawk Valley region of the U.S. state of New York is the area surrounding the Mohawk River, sandwiched between the Adirondack Mountains and Catskill Mountains, northwest of the Capital District. As of the 2010 United States Census, th ...

town of

Canajoharie, New York Canajoharie () is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Montgomery County, New York, Montgomery County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 3,730 in 2010. Canajoharie is located south of the Mohawk River o ...

. Raymond P. Lipe, along with his friend John D. Zieley and their brothers, Walter H. Lipe and David Zieley, and Bartlett Arkell, founded The Imperial Packing Co. for the production of Beech-Nut ham. The product was based on the smoked hams of the Lipes' father, farmer Ephraim Lipe. The company's principal products were ham and bacon for the first seven years. The Zieleys sold their shares to the Lipe brothers in 1892. The company was incorporated as the Beech-Nut Packing Company in 1899. Arkell was the first president of the company. In 1900, the company's sales were $200,000. Engineers from Beech-Nut patented the first vacuum jar, with a design that included a

gasket Some seals and gaskets A gasket is a mechanical seal which fills the space between two or more mating surfaces, generally to prevent leakage from or into the joined objects while under compression. It is a deformable material that is used to c ...

and top that could remain intact in transit and became a standard of the industry . During the first 25 years of the 20th century, the company expanded its product line into

peanut butter Peanut butter is a food paste or spread made from ground, dry-roasted peanuts. It commonly contains additional ingredients that modify the taste or texture, such as salt, sweeteners, or emulsifiers. Peanut butter is consumed in many countri ...

jam Jam is a type of fruit preserve. Jam or Jammed may also refer to: Other common meanings * A firearm malfunction * Block signals ** Radio jamming ** Radar jamming and deception ** Mobile phone jammer ** Echolocation jamming Arts and entertai ...

pork and beans Pork and beans is a culinary dish that uses pork and beans as its main ingredients. Numerous variations exist, usually with a more specific name, such as Fabada Asturiana, Olla podrida, or American canned pork and beans. American canned pork a ...

, ketchup, chili sauce, mustard, spaghetti,

macaroni Macaroni (, Italian: maccheroni) is dry pasta shaped like narrow tubes.Oxford DictionaryMacaroni/ref> Made with durum wheat, macaroni is commonly cut in short lengths; curved macaroni may be referred to as elbow macaroni. Some home machines ...

, marmalade,

caramel Caramel ( or ) is an orange-brown confectionery product made by heating a range of sugars. It can be used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, or as a topping for ice cream and custard. The process of caramelizatio ...

, fruit drops, mints, chewing gum, and

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

Timeline

*1891: Founded as the Imperial Packing Company. *1910: Beech-Nut Chewing Gum line launched by director

Frank Barbour Francis Edward Barbour (April 3, 1870 – February 4, 1948) was an American football player, coach, and businessman. He played quarterback for the Yale University football team in 1890 and 1891 and helped lead the 1891 Yale team to a perfect 13� ...

*1927: Loses a trademark infringement case at the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

against Lorillard Tobacco Company concerning their Beechnut chewing-tobacco brand. *1956: Life Savers Limited merged with Beech-Nut. *1968: Beech-Nut Life Savers merged with Squibb (part of the Olin Corporation) to form the Squibb Beech-Nut Corporation. *1973: Part of the company that sold only baby food was sold to a group led by lawyer Frank C. Nicholas. *1976: Beech Nut becomes the first baby food company to remove added salt, in addition to added refined sugar, beginning the "natural" baby food movement. *1979: Nicholas sold the baby food company to

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

. *1981:

Nabisco Nabisco (, abbreviated from the earlier name National Biscuit Company) is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International. Nabisco's ...

acquired Life Savers (which includes the Beech-Nut candy line) from the E.R. Squibb Corporation. *1985: Beech-Nut began testing its products' ingredients for environmental contaminants, such as heavy metals and pesticides. *1987: Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation paid

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

2.2 million, then the largest fine issued, for violating the

Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act The United States Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (abbreviated as FFDCA, FDCA, or FD&C) is a set of laws passed by the United States Congress in 1938 giving authority to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to oversee the safety of f ...

by selling artificially flavored sugar water as apple juice. John F. Lavery, the company's vice president for operations was convicted in criminal court and sentenced to a year and a day in jail; Niels L. Hoyvald, the president of the company, also convicted, served six months of community service. Each of them also paid a $100,000 fine. *1989: Ralston Purina acquired Beech-Nut from Nestlé. *1998: Milnot Holding Corporation, one of the portfolio of companies owned by the

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

investment firm Madison Dearborn Partners, acquired Beech-Nut from

Ralcorp Holdings Ralcorp Holdings is a manufacturer of various food products, including breakfast cereal, cookies, crackers, chocolate, snack foods, mayonnaise, pasta, and peanut butter. The company is based in St. Louis, Missouri. The majority of the items Ralco ...

(a spin-off of Ralston Purina). A potential merger with H.J. Heinz Co. was successfully challenged by the Federal Trade Commission and never consummated. *2002: Beech-Nut becomes the first baby food manufacturer to produce a line of baby food with

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and

ARA ARA may refer to: Media and the arts * American-Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences * '' Artistička Radna Akcija'', compilation album released in former Yugoslavia * Associate of the Royal Academy, denoting membership in the British Royal Aca ...

, two essential fatty acids found naturally in

breast milk Breast milk (sometimes spelled as breastmilk) or mother's milk is milk produced by mammary glands located in the breast of a human female. Breast milk is the primary source of nutrition for newborns, containing fat, protein, carbohydrates ( lacto ...

. *2005: Madison Dearborn sold Milnot, and Beech-Nut along with it, to the Swiss branded consumer-goods firm Hero Group. *2007: Beech-Nut announced its intentions to move all of its manufacturing and corporate operations to the town of Florida, New York, a town close to Amsterdam, NY. *2012: Jeff Boutelle named CEO of Beech-Nut *2014: Beech-Nut launched Beech-Nut Naturals, a line inspired by homemade baby food. *2015: Beech-Nut announced a recall of approximately 1,920 pounds of baby food products after receiving a single report of a small glass piece found in a jar of its baby food. *2017: Mark Rodriguez named CEO of Beech-Nut *2018: Beech-Nut began its support for

No Kid Hungry Share Our Strength is a national organization working to end childhood hunger and poverty in the United States. Share Our Strength holds culinary events, solicits individual donations, and uses social media to raise funds, which are then used to ...

, a division of Share Our Strength, which works to end childhood hunger in the United States. From 2018 to 2023, Beech-Nut will have donated over 6 million meals to kids and families. *2019: Beech-Nut co-founded the Baby Food Council, alongside academic, government, and NGO partners to take on the challenge of reducing heavy metals in young children’s food. Founding members were Plum Organics, Cornell University, Environmental Defense Fund, Gerber Products Company, The Hain Celestial Group (Earth’s Best), Happy Family Organics, and Healthy Babies Bright Futures. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration served as technical advisors. *2020: Dianne Jacobs named CEO of Beech-Nut. *2022: Beech-Nut says they test every ingredient lot it receives for up to 255 environmental contaminants.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.beechnut.com * ''The Story of a Pantry Shelf: An Outline History of Grocery Specialties''. New York: Butterick Publishing Co., 1925.
An excerpt about Beech-Nut
from
The Story of a Pantry Shelf
', via the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

website
Beech-Nut and Life Savers in Canada
from an

Industry Canada Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED; french: Innovation, Sciences et Développement économique Canada; french: ISDE, label=none)''Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal I ...

website
Frank C. Nicholas biography
1970s-era co-owner of Beech-Nut
Milnot Holding Corporation

Madison Dearborn Partners
Condiment companies of the United States Companies based in New York (state) American companies established in 1899 Food and drink companies established in 1899 1899 establishments in New York (state) Private equity portfolio companies American brands Montgomery County, New York Baby food manufacturers