Ovson Egg was an American food processing company founded in 1919 to provide frozen, canned and dried eggs to manufacturers of products such as cookies, cakes, custards, egg noodles, beverages, ice cream, macaroni, mayonnaise, salad dressing and puddings. The

National Dairy Products Corporation Kraft Foods Inc. was a Multinational corporation, multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It marketed many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earned more than $1 billion wor ...

became a majority investor in the company in 1929, and it became part 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 ...

in 1952.

Founding

Breaking and freezing of eggs began in U.S. in the 1890s in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

George Dole George Dole may refer to: * George Dole (wrestler) (1885–1928), American wrestler * George W. Dole (1800–1860), American businessman and early settler of Chicago See also * George P. Doles George Pierce Doles (May 14, 1830 – June 2, 18 ...

, who owned one of the first cold storage facilities in the United States, and former school teacher H. J. Keith were the first to open an egg-breaking business, the H.J. Keith Company. They also began separating yolks from whites and selling them as separate products. In 1898, Keith made a deal with H. A. Perry of

Salina, Kansas Salina is a city in, and the county seat of, Saline County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,889. In the early 1800s, the Kanza tribal land reached eastward from the middle of the Kansas Territory. In 1 ...

. Perry was the founder of Seymour Foods, and had invented a hand-operated yolk-and-white separator which dramatically improved productivity. Keith licensed this technology from Perry and dramatically increased production.Stadelman, ''Egg Science and Technology,'' 1995. Morris Ovson was a Russian citizen who emigrated to the United States in 1904 and became an American citizen in 1909. Ovson found employment as an egg candler for the H.J. Keith Company."Frozen Eggs," ''Time,'' April 12, 1937. In time, Ovson became a processing operations inspector and opened new production and processing facilities for the company. Keith also sent Ovson to Europe to learn how to produce dried eggs. In 1917, Keith sent Morris to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

to open a new dried and frozen egg production company, the Amos Bird Company (which became part of The Borden Food Corporation). But Ovson did not want to move to China. He had married the former Ida Karelitz in 1910, and the couple had three young sons (Leo, Gene, and Hank). Leo and Gene joined Morris into the frozen egg business. Morris Ovson returned to the United States in 1919, formed a business partnership with Keith, and founded the Ovson-Keith Egg Company. To secure additional capital, C. J. Bowman and W. F. Priebe became investors and associates in the firm, and the company name was changed to the Bowman-Priebe-Ovson Company.

1920s

On September 19, 1922, Morris Ovson was awarded a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

for "Mocoyolk" (U.S. Patent No. 1,429,559), a product which is 95 percent yolk and 5 percent

glycerine Glycerol (), also called glycerine in British English and glycerin in American English, is a simple triol compound. It is a colorless, odorless, viscous liquid that is sweet-tasting and non-toxic. The glycerol backbone is found in lipids known ...

which helps preserve the consistency of egg and keeps baked products moist. In 1929, the Bowman-Priebe-Ovson Company was reorganized and became the Ovson Egg Company. Financial difficulties created by the Great Depression led the National Dairy Products Corporation (now

) to invest in the company and take a non-controlling majority interest in the firm.

1930s and 1940s

By 1937, the two largest processed egg companies in the United States were Standard Brands (which became part of

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 ...

and eventually Kraft Foods) and the Ovson Egg Company. Ovson Egg had seven plants, located in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

;

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

;

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

; Davenport, Iowa;

Moberly, Missouri Moberly is a city in Randolph County, Missouri, United States. The population was 13,974 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Columbia, Missouri metropolitan area. History Moberly was founded in 1866, and named after Colonel William E. Mober ...

;

Great Bend, Kansas Great Bend is a city in and the county seat of Barton County, Kansas, United States. It is named for its location at the point where the course of the Arkansas River bends east then southeast. As of the 2020 census, the population of the ci ...

; and Parsons, Kansas. The Shanghai plant was the largest egg processing facility in Asia. As the demand for eggs products soared during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Ovson Egg's profits soared. Ovson Egg was one of the few American firms which manufactured dried and powdered eggs, and it became a significant supplier of egg products to the U.S. military. In 1948, Leo and Morris Ovson opened an Ovson Egg plant in

Neosho, Missouri Neosho (; originally or ) is the most populous city in Newton County, Missouri, United States, which it serves as the county seat. With a population of 12,590 as of the 2020 census, the city is a part of the Joplin, Missouri Metropolitan Stat ...

. The plant was built by R. A. Haas, owner of Haas Cold Storage. Haas leased space to Ovson Egg, and Haas Cold Storage handled the processed eggs.

Sale and legal troubles

In 1952, Kraft Foods purchased National Dairy Products. Ovson Egg became part of Kraft, although the Ovson Egg offices remained in Chicago. Shortly after the Kraft purchase, Morris and Leo Ovson were indicted on June 14, 1955, for

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

in a

labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

racketeering investigation. Both men lied to a federal grand jury about giving money to

Joseph Glimco Joseph Paul Glimco (born Giuseppe Glielmi; January 14, 1909 – April 28, 1991) was an Italian-American labor leader and well-known organized crime figure based in Chicago. He was considered "Chicago's top labor racketeer" in the 1950s. One high ...

, president of Local 777 of the Taxicab Drivers Union, and to Max Podolsky, a

union organizer A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of trade union member (often elected) or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers. In some unions, the orga ...

for the Egg Inspectors Union. Joseph and Max were involved in the buying, selling, inspection and moving of eggs at the Fulton Street Egg Market in Chicago, one of the nation's largest egg trading boards. William Holloway, an accountant for Ovson Egg, was also indicted. Morris Ovson agreed to plead guilty to one charge in exchange for the district attorney dropping two additional charges against him and the lone charge against Leo Ovson. Due to his age, poor health, and retirement from the frozen egg business, Morris Ovson was not sentenced to prison but only to one year of probation. Morris Ovson died in 1961 at the age of 77."Morris Ovson," ''New York Times,'' September 7, 1961.

Current status

As of 2007, Ovson Egg was still a subsidiary of Kraft Foods. It maintains offices in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, Kansas City, Missouri and Shanghai. Ovson Egg provides products almost exclusively for use by other Kraft subsidiaries.

Notes

References

*"Frozen Eggs." ''Time.'' April 12, 1937. *"Indict Three for Perjury in Glimco Probe." ''Chicago Daily Tribune.'' June 21, 1955. *"Mergers." ''Time.'' August 13, 1928. *"Morris Ovson." ''New York Times.'' September 7, 1961. *"National Dairy Buys Two Concerns." ''New York Times.'' September 20, 1929. *Ovson, Leo D. "Converting the Breaking of Eggs to a Science." ''Nation's Business.'' September 1937. *Ovson, Leo D. "Converting the 'Goodness' of Eggs by Sharp Freezing." ''Food Industries.'' December 1933. *"Ovson, Morris." In ''Who's Who in Chicago and Illinois.'' Chicago: Marquis and Company, 1945. *"Pal Joey." ''Time.'' September 7, 1959. *"Predicts More Action Against U.S. Witnesses." ''Chicago Daily Tribune.'' June 22, 1955. *Stadelman, William J. ''Egg Science and Technology.'' 4th ed. Binghamton, N.Y.: Haworth Press, 1995. {{ISBN, 1-56022-854-7 *"This Is a Trend." ''Time.'' July 28, 1961. *"Trial of Glimco and Podolsky Set for November 7." ''Chicago Daily Tribune.'' June 25, 1955. *Woudele, Joe and Heinsohn, Edwin. ''The Egg Products Industry of the United States 1900-1959.'' Department of Agricultural Economics, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan, Kansas. 1960.

External links

Kraft Foods Web sitePhotographs of the Bowman-Priebe-Ovson processing plants. Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive.Photographs of the Bowman-Priebe-Ovson processing plants. Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive.
Food manufacturers of the United States Food and drink companies established in 1919 Defunct companies based in Chicago Corporate crime Companies based in Cook County, Illinois Kraft Foods brands