Who invented powdered cheese

That way, they could ship more food with one shipment. The cheese was dehydrated by being run through drying chambers and squashed into bricks. When you dry and press out cheese, what you get is fine dust. Which can be used for cooking. After the war, there was a lot of cheese powder left in the warehouses of the military. A lot of corporations bought the powder to mix it into other goods, for adding extra flavor.

In , the Frito Company debuted the first ever American cheesy snack , made with dehydrated cheese. The founder of the company had been a military supplier.

This snack was the Cheeto, made by the extruding of cornmeal and water, puffed, fried in oil, and coated with the orange dehydrated Wisconsin cheese. By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies.

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A processed cheese that could withstand high temperatures and last for a long time, making it ideal for military rations. This is where the military comes in. During World War I, they ordered 25 million quarter-pound tins of processed cheese to use as rations. Then, by World War II, the military bought more than million pounds, plus thousand pounds of cheese spread.

They also funded research on the production of dehydrated cheese. The product was a hit, but Kraft wanted to find more ways to sell processed cheese, and eventually came up with the idea to make a powdered base. The packet in the box of macaroni and cheese is essentially a cheese sauce that has been partially defatted and dehydrated. In , Kraft debuted its boxed macaroni and cheese, which it sold for 19 cents and contained four servings.

With meat hard to come by, the cheap main dish substitute was a hit. So for most consumers, processed foods were a godsend. They kept well, tended to be easily digestible and, most importantly, they tasted good. Many of them could be easily prepared, freeing women from spending entire days cooking and giving them more time to pursue professions and avocations.

In some ways, processed foods were also healthier. They could be fortified with vitamins and minerals, and, in an era before everyone had access to mechanical refrigeration, the fact that they kept well meant consumers were less likely to contract diseases from spoiled, rotten foods. Pasteurization of dairy products virtually eliminated diseases like undulant fever , while foods processed and canned in large factories were less likely to harbor food-borne illnesses that could crop up due to faulty or improperly sanitized equipment used by home canners.