FOOD HISTORY: Peanut Butter

Peanuts, which are native to South America, were used as food and as a source for oil for the ancient Aztecs, Mayans and Incas. The Aztecs even roasted and mashed peanuts into a paste to use for food.  This was, however, no where near the peanut butter which we currently know and love today. Peanuts spread to  Europe, US and the rest of the world following colonization of the "New World". The first development on the road to modern peanut butter was in 1884 when Marcellus Gilmore Edson, a Druggist in Canada, applied for and was granted a US patent for a " new manufacture of peanuts to form a flavoring paste". He milled roasted peanuts between heated surfaces to a form a paste that had, "the consistency similar to butter, lard or ointment." He believed that a candy could be created using his peanut paste and sugar but there is no evidence that he made or sold his peanut paste idea into a commercial venture. Later, others began making "pastes/butters" out of peanuts. In 1894, George Bayle, owner of a St. louis, MO food company was encouraged by a physician to process peanuts into a paste to be sold as  as "protein" substitute for people with "not-so-good dental works" that couldn't eat meat, He also sold lots of his peanut butter at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition as a snack food. Dr. J.H. Kellog , a devout Seventh Day Adventist and strict vegetarian, experimented with peanut paste made using steamed peanuts as a vegetable protein for the patients at his Battle Creek, MI sanatorium in 1898. Benton Black founded the Krema Peanut Company in Columbus, OH in 1898 with its first product being peanut butter. (The Krema Company is in business today and still produces peanut butter). The problem with all of these products was that the peanut oil separated from the grainy peanut solids fairly rapidly, rose to the top of the container, became exposed to light and oxygen and became rancid.  Because of this,  peanut butter had to be consumed shortly after its being prepared. This made all peanut butters at that time, products that had to be eaten in areas only quite close to the processing sites. This changed in 1923, when Joseph Rosefield  of Alameda CA, received a patent to manufacture peanut butter using an process which prevented oil separation. Because of this, his peanut butter was the first shelf stable peanut butter, staying fresh for up to a year. In1928, he licensed a company to make "Peter Pan Peanut Butter" which was the first dominant national peanut butter. However, in 1932, after a licensing dispute with the maker of Peter Pan, he started his own company, the Rosefield Packing Company, making peanut butter with the brand name,  'Skippy". Over the next years, Rosefield introduced many innovations in peanut butter including putting fragments of peanuts into the butter to make a  "chunky - style" peanut butter and went to the wide mouth jar for easy access to the product, The wide mouth jar has been the accepted industry wide standard ever since. Even before Reese's created peanut butter cups, Rosefield brought a peanut butter-chocolate product to the market; Choc-Nut Butter. Although this was not a commercial success, it shows the forward thinking of Rosefield about the potential uses for peanut butter. The Skippy brand overtook Peter Pan in the late 40's and it remained the nations favorite until 1980. In 1955, he sold his company to Best Foods for six million dollars. That same year, Procter and Gamble bought "Big Top" peanut butter from W. T. Young  Foods. Inc., Lexington, KY. Over the years, P & G reformulated the "Big Top" product, replacing peanut oil with other oils and added  sugar and molasses to sweeten it. they rebranded it with the name "Jif" to compete with Skippy and Peter Pan. Some of these changes were adopted by other peanut makers, as well. After years of dispute between peanut manufacturers and the US government over what could be called peanut butter, governmental standards were established in 1971. Jiff, with help from  a new advertising slogan, "Choosey mothers choose Jif",  jumped from being the number three to being number one selling brand. The Jif brand was purchased by Smuckers in 2001 and has been the nations' best selling brand for more than 30 years. Because peanut butters history of development and promotion as a as a food product was mostly associated with the United States, its popularity outside the US was slow to develop. However, according to a current report by the IMARC Research group, the global peanut butter market is presently worth three billion dollars with a increase in demand growth rate during the years 2009-2016.