Shredded wheat
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Product type | Breakfast cereal |
---|---|
Owner | |
Produced by | Post Consumer (Worldwide) Nestlé (UK) |
Country | U.S. |
Introduced | 1893 |
Previous owners | Cereal Machine Company |
Website | postbrands.com/shreddedwheat |
Shredded wheat is a breakfast cereal made from whole wheat formed into pillow-shaped biscuits. It is commonly available in three sizes: original, bite-sized (¾×1 in) and miniature (nearly half the size of the bite-sized pieces). Both smaller sizes ("Mini-Wheats" and "little bites") are available in a frosted variety, which has one side coated with sugar and usually gelatin. Some manufacturers have produced "filled" versions of the bite-size cereal containing a raisin at the center, or apricot, blueberry, raspberry, cherry, cranberry or golden syrup filling.
In the United States, shredded wheat is most heavily advertised and marketed by
History
United States and Canada
The wheat is first cooked in water until its moisture content reaches about 50%. It is then tempered, allowing moisture to diffuse evenly into the grain. The grain then passes through a set of rollers with grooves in one side, yielding a web of shredded wheat strands. Many webs are stacked together, and this moist stack of strands is crimped at regular intervals to produce individual pieces of cereal with the strands attached at each end. These then go into an oven, where they are baked until their moisture content is reduced to 5%.[citation needed]
Perky first sold his shredded wheat cereal to
One of his wheat-processor buyers, Dr.
Premiering to the public at
United States production of Shredded Wheat moved to Naperville, Illinois, in 1954, where it is still made. In 1993, Nabisco sold the brand to Kraft General Foods, but it was still under the Nabisco name until 1999, whereupon it was sold under the slogan "Nabisco brought to you by Post."
Canadian production has been at
In 1920, Henry Perky's son, Scott Henry Perky, developed a round shredded wheat cereal, which he named Muffets. The Muffets Corporation was sold to the Quaker Oats Company in 1927. The cereal is still marketed in Canada as Muffets, but in the U.S. is now sold as Quaker Shredded Wheat.
United Kingdom
History
The original company opened a factory in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, in 1926 at which time Welgar was its registered trade mark, which became part of Nabisco in 1928.[7] The tall concrete cereal silos that formed part of the factory are a local landmark and are listed structures. The first 18 storage units were completed in 1926 with a further 27 constructed in 1938; in both instances they were built by Peter Lind & Company of London who continues in business today.
In 1988, Nabisco sold the UK site to Rank Hovis McDougall (who made own-label cereals for supermarkets), whose breakfast cereals division briefly became the Shredded Wheat Company. In 1990, RHM sold the site to Cereal Partners. Since 2007, all Shredded Wheat is made at Staverton, Wiltshire,[8] and the Welwyn Garden City site was shut in 2008. The "Bitesize", "Fruitful" and "Honey Nut" Shredded Wheat variants are also made in the UK.
Advertising
Shredded Wheat has a particular place in UK popular culture due to a long-running television advertising campaign. The campaign in the 1970s featured Linda Hoyle, singing the lyrics:
- "There are two men in my life,
- To one I am a mother,
- To the other I'm a wife,
- And I give them both the best
- With natural Shredded Wheat"
The Three Shredded Wheat campaign, which came later, suggested that the cereal was so nourishing that it was impossible to eat three. Even a black hole was shown as exploding when the third biscuit was sucked into it. Phrases such as "I bet you can't eat three" and "He must have eaten three" were in common use as humorous remarks in the 1970s and 1980s, with celebrities such as Brian Clough, Peter Shilton, Richard Kiel and Ian Botham all 'unable' to eat three.[9][10] A later UK poster advertisement for Carling Black Label showed a bowl with four Shredded Wheat and the caption "I bet he drinks Carling Black Label."[citation needed]
Trademark of the term "Shredded Wheat"
After
Serving and nutrition
Shredded wheat consists entirely of
See also
- Frosted Mini-Wheats, a brand of frosted shredded wheat
- Raisin Wheats, a brand of filled shredded wheat
- Weetabix, another wheat-based biscuit cereal
- Weet-Bix, a wheat-based biscuit cereal in Australia and New Zealand
- Triscuit, a savory cracker produced with a similar process
References
- ^ Snodgrass, Mary Ellen, Encyclopedia of Kitchen History, London: Routledge, 2004, p. 180.
- ^ Snodgrass, op. cit.
- ^ Ludacer, Randy, "Shredded Wheat Documents: Cereal as Intellectual Property," Beach Packaging Design, April 19, 2011.
- ^ Di Cola, Joseph M., and David Stone, Images of America: Chicago's 1893 World's Fair, Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2012, p. 8.
- ISBN 978-1-61069-233-5.
- ^ "WNY History".
- ^ Butterfield, Richard J: The Industrial Archaeology of the Twentieth Century: The Shredded Wheat Factory at Welwyn Garden City in Industrial Archaeology Review: Volume 16 (1994), page 196 ff.
- ^ Blake, Morwenna (18 August 2006). "£40m expansion to create 100 new jobs". Wiltshire Times. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
- ^ "CDP Classic ads - Shredded Wheat (1980-1981)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
- ^ "AOL On".
- ^ Ludacer, op. cit.
- ^ "Kellogg Co. v. National Biscuit Co". Findlaw.
- ^ "Post Shredded Wheat Original Nuturition". Archived from the original on 6 March 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
External links
- Official website
- Kellogg Co. v. National Biscuit Co., 305 U.S 111 (1938) at Findlaw
- Shredded wheat history chronology
- Closure of Welwyn Garden City plant
- Picture of Welwyn Garden City factory, Feb 2007, at Geograph.org.uk
- Darling Associates project to redevelop Welwyn Garden City factory[permanent dead link]
- Digital Images related to Shredded Wheat Production in North America Niagara Falls Public Library (Ont.)
- food product design site
- 1905 advertisement