Banquet Foods is a subsidiary of

Conagra Brands 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, ...

that sells various food products, including frozen pre-made entrées, meals, and desserts. The brand is best known for its line of TV dinners. Banquet was founded in 1953, with the introduction of frozen meat pies. Banquet first hit the store shelves in 1955, offering frozen dinners. Soon after that, Banquet became popular with their ''Cookin' Bags'' products. In 1970, the company was purchased by

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

, which in turn sold it to Con-Agra in 1980. Banquet is known primarily for a frozen breaded chicken, but expanded into other chicken products over the years, including chicken

pot pie Pot pie is the North American term for a type of meat pie with a top pie crust that is commonly used throughout the continent. consisting of flaky pastry. Pot pies may be made with a variety of fillings including poultry, beef, seafood, or plant- ...

chicken nugget A chicken nugget is a food product consisting of a small piece of deboned chicken meat that is breaded or battered, then deep-fried or baked. Invented in the 1950s, chicken nuggets have become a very popular fast food restaurant item, as ...

s, ready-to-heat microwaveable dinners and

buffalo wing A Buffalo wing in American cuisine is an unbreaded chicken wing section ( flat or drumette) that is generally deep-fried and then coated or dipped in a sauce consisting of a vinegar-based cayenne pepper hot sauce and melted butter prior to ser ...

s. In 2004, Banquet introduced Homestyle Bakes – ready to bake dinner kits in 11 varieties, as well as Dessert Bakes – no-bake

pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts (pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), sweete ...

and cake mixes. With the 2007 sale of former Con-Agra division

Swift & Company JBS USA Holdings, Inc. is an American food processing company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational company JBS S.A. The subsidiary was created when JBS entered the U.S. market in 2007 with its purchase of Swift & Company. JBS speci ...

to JBS USA, the popular frozen

breakfast sausage Breakfast sausage (or country sausage) is a type of fresh pork sausage usually served at breakfast in the United States. In the United States, the predominant flavorings used for seasoning are black pepper or sage. There are also varieties seaso ...

line formerly known as "Swift Premium Brown & Serve" was briefly rebranded under the

Armour Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or f ...

name, then to "Banquet Brown & Serve" by the end of 2009.

Product incidents

On October 11, 2007, food manufacturer Con-Agra asked stores to pull its Banquet and generic brand chicken and turkey pot pies due to 152 cases of

salmonella ''Salmonella'' is a genus of rod-shaped (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two species of ''Salmonella'' are '' Salmonella enterica'' and '' Salmonella bongori''. ''S. enterica'' is the type species and is ...

poisoning in 31 states being linked to the consumption of Con-Agra pot pies, with 20 people hospitalized. A final report by the

CDC The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georg ...

determined that there were 401 cases across 41 states, with approximately one-third of all cases resulting in hospitalization. By October 12, a full recall was announced, affecting all varieties of frozen pot pies sold under the brands Banquet,

Albertsons Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho. With 2,253 stores as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2020 and 270,000 employees as of fiscal year 2019, the company is the second-larg ...

Cub Foods Cub is an American supermarket chain. It operates stores in Minnesota and Illinois. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of SuperValu Inc., based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. History Beginnings Cub Foods was founded by Minnesota-based Hooley ...

, Food Lion, Great Value, Hill Country Fare, Kirkwood,

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinci ...

Meijer Meijer Inc. (, ; stylized as meijer) is an American supercenter chain that primarily operates throughout the Midwest. Its corporate headquarters are in Walker, Michigan, which is a part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area. Founded in 1934 ...

, and

Western Family Foods Western Family Foods was founded as the Pacific Mercantile Cooperative on March 3, 1934, by a group of retailer-owned grocery wholesalers. Western Family Foods was established December 19, 1963. The company supplies independent grocery stores w ...

. The recalled pot pies included all varieties in 7-oz (200-g) single-serving packages bearing the number P-9 or “Est. 1059” printed on the side of the package. When the pies returned to the market, cooking temperature requirements for serving were made more apparent on the packaging; competitor brands also followed suit.

References

External links

Official website
Defunct agriculture companies of the United States Conagra Brands brands Brand name poultry meats Frozen food brands Products introduced in 1953 Meat companies of the United States 1980 mergers and acquisitions {{ConAgra

Product incidents

See also

References

External links