Old El Paso is a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

Tex-Mex Tex-Mex cuisine (from the words ''Texan'' and ''Mexican'') is an American cuisine, American cuisine that derives from the culinary creations of the Tejanos, ''Tejano'' people of Texas. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others i ...

-style

foods Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ingest ...

from American food producer

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 orig ...

. These include

dinner Dinner usually refers to what is in many Western cultures the largest and most formal meal of the day, which is eaten in the evening. Historically, the largest meal used to be eaten around midday, and called dinner. Especially among the elite, ...

kits,

taco A taco (, , ) is a traditional Mexican food consisting of a small hand-sized corn- or wheat-based tortilla topped with a filling. The tortilla is then folded around the filling and eaten by hand. A taco can be made with a variety of filling ...

s and

tortilla A tortilla (, ) is a thin, circular unleavened flatbread originally made from maize hominy meal, and now also from wheat flour. The Aztecs and other Nahuatl speakers called tortillas ''tlaxcalli'' (). First made by the indigenous peoples of Me ...

s, taco seasoning, sauces,

condiments A condiment is a preparation that is added to food, typically after cooking, to impart a specific flavor, to enhance the flavor, or to complement the dish. A table condiment or table sauce is more specifically a condiment that is served separate ...

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

, and

refried beans Refried beans (from es, frijoles refritos, ) is a dish of cooked and mashed beans that is a traditional staple of Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine, although each cuisine has a different approach when making the dish. Refried beans are also popular ...

. Old El Paso products are marketed across the globe. The brand is owned by

. Pillsbury acquired it in 1995, when its then-parent company

Grand Metropolitan Grand Metropolitan plc was a leisure, manufacturing and property conglomerate headquartered in England. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it merged with Guinness plc to form ...

bought Pet, Inc., which had itself taken over the brand in 1968 from the Mountain Pass Canning Company. The name is a reference to the city of

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

, and the historical "Old" period when Texas was a part of Mexico.

History and products

In 1917, the Mountain Pass Canning Company in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

was bought from a local in El Paso, Texas. The Old El Paso company originally started by selling canned tomatoes and pinto beans. By 1938, Old El Paso was registered as a trade mark. Old El Paso relocated to many locations around the U.S., before finally settling in Texas in 1958. In 1969, Old El Paso became the first national brand to offer a full line of Mexican meals in supermarkets and the first to advertise Mexican cuisine in the U.S. In 1970, American supermarkets created a Mexican food section in their stores for the first time, due to the influence of Old El Paso and other Mexican food products. Also in the '70s, Old El Paso introduced a taco dinner globally, where many international markets were unfamiliar with Mexican cuisine. In 2010, Old El Paso released products under the “Smart Fiesta” line, also known as “Healthy Fiesta” in some regions. This line features healthier alternatives for their traditional dinner kits. The Smart Fiesta dinner kits include hard and soft taco shells and tortillas made with whole grain, and fajita and taco seasoning with reduced sodium. In 2013, Old El Paso introduced their new frozen entrees line, only available in the US. The product line features frozen ready-made burritos, quesadillas, enchiladas, and fajitas. The entrees are available in chicken, ground beef, or steak. There are no vegan or vegetarian options currently. In 2019, Old El Paso introduced a new shredded cheese line in partnership with Crystal Farms Dairy Company. Today, Old El Paso is sold in the United States, Canada, the UK, Germany, Australia, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, among other countries.

References

External links

Old El Paso USAOld El Paso UKOld El Paso GermanyOld El Paso SpainOld El Paso FinlandOld El Paso SwedenOld El Paso AustraliaOld El Paso Canada

Old El Paso FranceOld El Paso NorwayOfficial Old El Paso UK Facebook Page
General Mills brands Tex-Mex cuisine Products introduced in 1938 {{food-product-stub