Hunt's is the name of a brand of preserved

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

products owned by

Conagra Brands Conagra Brands, Inc. (formerly ConAgra Foods) is an American Fast-moving consumer goods, consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Conagra makes and sells products under various brand names that are available in ...

. The company was founded in 1888, in

Sebastopol, California Sebastopol ( ) is a city in Sonoma County, in California with a recorded population of 7,521, per the 2020 U.S. Census. Sebastopol was once primarily a plum and apple-growing region. Today, wine grapes are the predominant agriculture crop, a ...

, as the Hunt Bros. Fruit Packing Co., by Joseph and William Hunt. The brothers relocated to nearby

Santa Rosa Santa Rosa is the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish name for Saint Rose. Santa Rosa may also refer to: Places Argentina *Santa Rosa, Mendoza, a city * Santa Rosa, Tinogasta, Catamarca * Santa Rosa, Valle Viejo, Catamarca *Santa Rosa, La Pampa * Sa ...

in 1890, and then to Hayward in 1895. This small

canning Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container (jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although u ...

operation grew rapidly, focused on canning the products of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

's booming fruit and vegetable industries. By 1941, the plant shipped a hundred million cans of soup, fruits, vegetables, and juices annually. In 1943, Hunt's was taken over by

Norton Simon Norton Winfred Simon (February 5, 1907 – June 2, 1993) was an American industrialist and philanthropist. He was at one time one of the wealthiest men in America. At the time of his death, he had amassed a net worth of nearly US$10 billion. S ...

's Val Vita Food Products - a competing firm founded in the early 1930s and based in

Fullerton, California Fullerton ( ) is a city located in northern Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 143,617. Fullerton was founded in 1887. It secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka and Sa ...

. The merged firm kept the ''Hunt's'' name and incorporated as Hunt Food and Industries, Inc. The new management led by Norton Simon decided to focus the company on canned tomato products, particularly prepared

tomato sauce Tomato sauce (also known as ''salsa roja'' in Spanish or ''salsa di pomodoro'' in Italian) can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish, rather than as a condiment. Tomato sauces are c ...

. The Wesson Oil & Snowdrift Company merged with Hunt's Foods, Inc. in 1960 to become Hunt-Wesson Foods. Hunt-Wesson merged with the

McCall Corporation McCall Corporation was an American publishing company that produced some popular magazines. These included ''Redbook'' for women, ''Bluebook'' for men, ''McCall's'', the '' Saturday Review'', and ''Popular Mechanics''. It also published ''Better L ...

and

Canada Dry Canada Dry is a brand of soft drinks founded in 1904 and owned since 2008 by the American company Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Dr Pepper Snapple (now Keurig Dr Pepper). For over 100 years, Canada Dry has been known mainly for its ginger ale, though ...

to form Norton Simon Inc. in 1968. Norton Simon was acquired by Esmark in 1983, which merged with

Beatrice Foods Beatrice Foods Company was a major American food processing company founded in 1894. In 1987, its international food operations were sold to Reginald Lewis, a corporate attorney, creating TLC Beatrice International, after which the majority of ...

the next year. In 1985,

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strate ...

acquired Beatrice with the goal of selling off businesses. Hunt-Wesson, the company which included the Hunt's brands, was sold in 1990 to

agribusiness Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit w ...

giant

ConAgra Foods Conagra Brands, Inc. (formerly ConAgra Foods) is an American consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Conagra makes and sells products under various brand names that are available in supermarkets, restaurants, ...

. In 1999, ConAgra Grocery Products (the former Hunt-Wesson) moved from Fullerton to

Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on ...

. The Irvine office was closed in 2006. Besides several varieties of canned

, the Hunt's brand appears on

tomato paste Tomato paste is a thick paste made by cooking tomatoes for several hours to reduce the water content, straining out the seeds and skins, and cooking the liquid again to reduce the base to a thick, rich concentrate. It is used to impart an intens ...

, diced, whole, stewed, pureed and crushed tomatoes,

organic Organic may refer to: * Organic, of or relating to an organism, a living entity * Organic, of or relating to an anatomical organ Chemistry * Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or is the product ...

and No Salt Added tomato products,

spaghetti Spaghetti () is a long, thin, solid, cylindrical pasta.spaghetti
Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridg ...

sauce,

ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and tangy flavor. The unmodified term ("ketchup") now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, grapes, mussels, or walnuts, among other ...

barbecue sauce Barbecue sauce (also abbreviated as BBQ sauce) is a sauce used as a marinade, basting (cooking), basting, condiment, or topping for meat cooked in the barbecue cooking style, including pork or beef ribs (food), ribs and chicken as food, chicken. I ...

, canned potatoes, canned peaches and Hunt's ''Family Favorites'' line of canned recipe helpers. The Hunt's brand name also appears on

Manwich Manwich, a portmanteau of ''man'' and ''sandwich'', is the brand name of a canned sloppy joe sauce produced by ConAgra Foods and Hunt's, introduced in 1969. The can contains seasoned tomato sauce that is added to ground beef cooked in a Frying pa ...

brand

sloppy joe A sloppy joe is a sandwich consisting of ground beef, onions, tomato sauce or ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and other seasonings, served on a hamburger bun. There are several theories about the sandwich's origin. History Early and mid-20th c ...

s products and formerly

Hunt's Snack Pack Pudding Hunt's Snack Pack is a pudding snack manufactured since 1977 by ConAgra Foods. About Snack Packs were introduced in 1968 in single-serve aluminum/metal cans, before switching to plastic cups in 1984 and clear plastic cups in 1990. They are mar ...

. Reddi-wip whipped cream was originally also under the Hunt's banner. In 1988, Hunt's catsup changed its label to ketchup. In May 2010, Hunt's ketchup temporarily removed

high fructose corn syrup High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), also known as glucose–fructose, isoglucose and glucose–fructose syrup, is a sweetener made from corn starch. As in the production of conventional corn syrup, the starch is broken down into glucose by enzym ...

from its ingredients. The new ingredients were "tomatoes,

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to et ...

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

and other

seasoning Seasoning is the process of supplementing food via herbs, spices, salts, and/or sugar, intended to enhance a particular flavour. General meaning Seasonings include herbs and spices, which are themselves frequently referred to as "seasonings". Ho ...

s". The product changed back to high fructose corn syrup in May 2012. As of May 2017, the sugar-based version has been available for some time in the US, labeled as 100% Natural Tomato Ketchup and in the specific sizes; 20 oz, 28 oz, 38.5 oz, and 62 oz. In December 2018,

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

quarterback

Patrick Mahomes Patrick Lavon Mahomes II (born September 17, 1995) is an American football quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). The son of former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Pat Mahomes, he initially played co ...

signed an endorsement deal with Hunt's. Mahomes is well-known for his love of ketchup, even putting it on unconventional items such as steak and macaroni and cheese. Hunt Foods also operated a plant, #25 at 49 Grove St in Bridgeton, NJ which was closed in 1982. The following information was provided by P.J. Ritter: Hunts was located across the stream and in close proximity to Ritters along the Cohansey River on Grove Street in Bridgeton NJ. They were friendly competitors and if the processing line broke down at one of the plants they would divert the trucks filled with perishable tomatoes to each others processing plant. Dominick Sorantino a farmer from Cedarville was their biggest tomato supplier. The plant closed in 1982. Hunt-Wesson to close tomato cannery BRIDGETON, N.J. -- A tomato cannery that employs more than 600 workers during its peak months to load the air with hot, spicy steam will shut down by the end of the year, company officials said Wednesday. The cannery, a red brick institution in the Cumberland County seat, is owned by Hunt-Wesson Foods Inc., the largest food processor in the state still purchasing substantial amounts of fresh produce from local farmers. The company 'will phase out its operations between now and the end of the year,' said plant manager James Ramsey. 'We deeply regret having to take this action.' The move will be another financial blow to the county, where state figures show unemployment at 14.9 percent, the highest in New Jersey. The plant currently employs 135 workers fulltime for maintenance and production, and hires 500 seasonal workers for August and September, when the Jersey tomatoes are ripened and ready for processing into ketchup and tomato sauce. Ramsey said Hunt-Wesson decided to close the Bridgeton plant after surveys showed that moving all its operations to its western canneries would be more profitable. He said the decision was based on several factors, including the climate. The tomato season is nearly twice as long on the West Coast, Ramsey said, adding that milder weather conditions allowed for a larger and more dependable tomato crop annually. 'The volume of tomato tonnage is not as predictable from season to season in the East as it is there (on the West Coast),' he said. He said Hunt-Wesson would continue to produce ketchup and other products at canneries it operates in Ohio and California, adding those plants were newer and more efficient. Ramsey said almost all the current employees would be let go, but the plant's staff would counsel its former workers in finding employment and work with government officials and the two unions at the plant - Local 576 of the Teamsters and Local 56 of the United Food and Commercial Workers -- to help them in job hunting. Union officials could not be reached for comment. Hunt-Wesson, which bought the cannery from E. Pritchard Foods Corp. in 1949, is a subsidiary of the New York-based Norton Simon Inc. P.J. Ritter

References

External links

Hunt's corporate website
{{portal bar, Food 1888 establishments in California American companies established in 1888 Food and drink companies established in 1888 1943 mergers and acquisitions 1960 mergers and acquisitions 1968 mergers and acquisitions 1983 mergers and acquisitions 1984 mergers and acquisitions 1985 mergers and acquisitions 1990 mergers and acquisitions Barbecue sauces Ketchup Conagra Brands brands Brand name condiments Companies based in Hayward, California History of Hayward, California Companies based in Santa Rosa, California Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area Food and drink companies based in California

See also

References

External links