Krusteaz

{{Short description|Consumer food product brand line}}

{{Infobox product

| title = Krusteasz

|type = Baking mix, pancake

|launch year = 1932

|company = The Krusteaz Company (formerly Continental Mills)

|website = {{URL|www.krusteaz.com}}

}}

Krusteaz is a consumer food product brand line of Tukwila, Washington-based Continental Mills, now The Krusteaz Company.{{cite press release | url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/continental-mills-announces-name-change-to-the-krusteaz-company-in-honor-of-flagship-brands-90th-anniversary-301624540.html | title=Continental Mills Announces Name Change to the Krusteaz Company in Honor of Flagship Brand's 90th Anniversary }} Its original product was "the world's first" just-add-water pie crust mix,{{cite web | url=https://www.bakingbusiness.com/articles/57288-continental-mills-marks-anniversary-adopts-new-name | title=Continental Mills marks anniversary adopts new name | Baking Business }} followed by a factory-prepared, shelf-stable flour and dried buttermilk mixture,{{sfn|Yahoo!|2019}} developed in 1946 or 1947 at the home economics department of the University of Washington,{{sfn|KCPQ|2018}} for making baked items including biscuits, pancakes, waffles, cobbler and dump cake.{{sfn|Christian Science Monitor|1997}}

The brand name "Crust Ease", changed to "Krusteaz", was coined and the company founded in 1932, reportedly{{cite web | url=https://www.union-bulletin.com/news/mystery-woman-who-co-founded-krusteaz-in-seattle-came-from-dayton-family/article_4943ba66-0474-579b-98f8-e6ab389b0989.html | title=Mystery woman who co-founded Krusteaz in Seattle came from Dayton family }} by four members of a Seattle bridge club; known co-founder Ada Rose Gilbreath Charters was from a Columbia County pioneer family, and raised on a farm in Dayton before attending Washington State University,{{sfn|Varriano|2020}}{{sfn|Puget Sound Business Journal| 2016}} back when it was known as Washington Agricultural College. She and her husband James Charters were the original owner-operators of the business.

As of September 2022, Krusteaz employed over 400 people in the Kent–Tukwila facilities{{cite web | url=https://www.kentreporter.com/business/tukwilas-continental-mills-changes-name-to-the-krusteaz-company/ | title=Tukwila's Continental Mills changes name to the Krusteaz Company | date=14 September 2022 }} – a Kent Valley facility constructed in 1986{{sfn|Seattle Times|1986}} – up from 300 in 2020,{{sfn|Puget Sound Business Journal|2020}} with over 800 total,{{cite press release | url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/continental-mills-announces-name-change-to-the-krusteaz-company-in-honor-of-flagship-brands-90th-anniversary-301624540.html | title=Continental Mills Announces Name Change to the Krusteaz Company in Honor of Flagship Brand's 90th Anniversary }} including in Effingham, Illinois, Manhattan, Kansas, and Hopkinsville, Kentucky, manufacturing over 150 products (e.g., muffin mixes, quick breads, snacks, cider), some for private labels and licensed brands.

Hundreds of pounds of Krusteaz may be used in a single pancake feed.{{sfn|Seattle Times|1999}}