The Jel Sert Company is a privately held company based in West Chicago,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Established in 1926, its primary products are

snack foods A snack is a small portion of food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home. Traditionally, snack ...

and beverages.

History and products

The Jel Sert Company was named for its original product, a

gelatin Gelatin or gelatine (from la, gelatus meaning "stiff" or "frozen") is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also ...

dessert mix named by combining the words ''jelly'' and ''dessert''. In 1929, Jel Sert created a powdered

drink mix A drink mix is a processed-food product, designed to mix usually with water to produce a beverage resembling fruit juice or soda in flavor. Another type of drink mix is represented by products that are mixed into milk. It is traditionally made i ...

called

Flavor Aid Flavor Aid is a non-carbonated soft drink beverage made by The Jel Sert Company in West Chicago, Illinois. It was introduced in 1929. It is sold throughout the United States as an unsweetened, powdered concentrate drink mix, similar to Kool ...

. These remained Jel Sert's flagship products until the 1960s when the company acquired the Pop-Ice company and its line of frozen

ice pop An ice pop is a liquid-based frozen snack on a stick. Unlike ice cream or sorbet, which are whipped while freezing to prevent ice crystal formation, an ice pop is "quiescently" frozen—frozen while at rest—and becomes a solid block of ice. ...

desserts. Later that decade, Jel Sert introduced Fla-Vor-Ice, another freezer pop, to complement its Flavor-Aid line. Fla-Vor-Ice quickly became the leading freezer pop brand in the United States. In 1991, the company launched the MONDO line of juice drinks and with it a promotional tactic involving the

recycle Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

ability of their plastic container over conventional individual boxed juice containers. Otter Pops were acquired by the company in 1996. Similar to Jel Sert's other freezer pops, the Otter Pop brand is perhaps the strongest on the United States' West Coast and features flavor-based characters such as Lil' Orphan Orange, Sir Isaac Lime, and Strawberry Short Kook. In 1999, it signed a promotional deal with

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company or ...

' Honey Nut Cheerios to promote its freezer bars. In 2000, Jel Sert acquired three other trademarks:

Wyler's Wyler's is a food and beverage brand established by Wyler's Company in 1931. The brand is now owned by Kraft Heinz for bouillon and dry soup mixes and by The Jel Sert Company for powdered drink mixes. History The spouses Silvain and Arma Wyler ...

, a brand of powdered beverage mixes, and the

Royal Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ...

and My-T-Fine brands of puddings, pie fillings, and flan. In 2001 it bought Nabisco's gelatin, pudding and baking powder businesses, including Royal gelatin, one of the main competitors of

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arran ...

Jell-O Jell-O is an American brand offering a variety of powdered gelatin dessert (fruit-flavored gels/jellies), pudding, and no-bake cream pie mixes. The original gelatin dessert ( genericized as jello) is the signature of the brand. "Jell-O" is ...

. On July 9, 2012, Jel Sert acquired Super C, Pure Kick and Zoic from Solis Brands. The Jel Sert Company has done charity work with the

American Childhood Cancer Organization The American Childhood Cancer Organization (ACCO), previously named Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization dedicated to childhood cancer. Today their membership of over 50,000 members of the ...

, the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, and

Operation Homefront Operation Homefront is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, and Arlington, Virginia. Its stated mission is to "build strong, stable, and secure military families so that they can thrive in the communities they ...

. In January 2020, Jel Sert acquired

All Sport History All Sport was launched by PepsiCo in 1994 as a competitor to The Coca-Cola Company’s Powerade and Gatorade, which at the time was a separate entity owned by Quaker Oats. After PepsiCo's 2001 acquisition of Quaker, All Sport was sold t ...

. In February 2020, Jel Sert launched Sliq Spirited Ice.

References

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External links

Jel Sert

Jel Sert LinkedIn
Food and drink companies established in 1926 Snack food manufacturers of the United States Drink companies of the United States Food and drink companies based in Illinois Manufacturing companies based in Illinois Companies based in DuPage County, Illinois 1926 establishments in Illinois