Product type | Macaroni |
---|---|
Owner | Kraft Heinz |
Produced by | Kraft Foods |
Country | United States |
Introduced | 1937 |
Markets | United States and Canada |
Previous owners | Kraft Foods Inc. (1937-2012) |
Website | kraftmacandcheese.com |
Kraft Dinner (marketed as KD) in Canada, Kraft Mac & Cheese in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Mac and Cheese in the United Kingdom and internationally, is a nonperishable, packaged macaroni and cheese product. It is made by Kraft Foods Group (or former parent company Mondelez internationally) and traditionally cardboard-boxed with dried macaroni pasta and a packet of processed cheese powder. It was introduced under the Kraft Dinner name simultaneously in both Canada and the U.S. in 1937.[1] The brand is particularly popular with Canadians, who consume 55% more boxes per capita than Americans.[2]
There are now many similar products, including private label, of nonperishable boxed macaroni and cheese. Commercially, the line has evolved, with deluxe varieties marketed with liquid processed cheese and microwavable frozen mac-and-cheese meals. The product by Kraft has developed into many flavour variations and formulations, including Easy Mac (a product that has since been renamed Mac & Cheese Dinner Cups), a single-serving product specifically designed for microwave ovens.
The product's innovation, at the time of the Great Depression, was to conveniently market nonperishable dried macaroni noodles together with a processed cheese powder. The product is prepared by cooking the pasta and adding the cheese powder along with butter (or margarine) and milk.
The product launched in the United States and Canada in 1937 under the name Kraft Dinner, with smaller print on the boxes identifying it as "macaroni and grated cheese"
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