Minute Rice
File:Minute Rice ad 1953 ladieshomejourna70janwyet 0018.jpg
Minute Rice is a brand of instant rice that cooks quickly, as the rice is parboiled and then dried prior to packaging. It was the first quick-cooking convenience white rice product on the US market.{{cite book |title=Handbook on Rice Cultivation and Processing |date=October 2007 |publisher=NIIR Project Consultancy Services |isbn=9788190568524 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BYdGAQAAQBAJ |access-date=27 February 2023}}
History
Afghan inventor Ataullah K. Ozai‐Durrani devised a process in the late 1930s to pre-cook and then dry rice in a way that allowed the rice to be re-hydrated simply by boiling it quickly. Ozai-Durrani sold his method to General Foods in 1941 for several million dollars. General Foods first supplied this quick-cooking rice to the US Army,{{cite book |last1=Buzzell |first1=Robert Dow |last2=Nourse |first2=Robert E. M. |title=Product Innovation in Food Processing, 1954-1964 |date=30 May 2008 |publisher=Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University |page=63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V26uAAAAIAAJ |access-date=27 February 2023}} and then released Minute Rice commercially in 1946.{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Andrew F. |title=The Oxford Companion to American Food and drink |date=9 March 2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199885763 |page=503 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GZVweuXhZlkC |access-date=27 February 2023}} An improved version of the product was released several years later.
Minute Rice was heavily marketed throughout the 1950s in magazines including Life and Better Homes and Gardens. In the 1990s, General Foods merged with Kraft and became Kraft General Foods, which became Kraft Foods in 1995. Around this time, sales of the product began to slip, which industry executives attributed to complications from the Kraft merger, the rise in private label and store brands creating more competition, and rice becoming less popular with some consumers compared to potatoes and pasta. Kraft began another advertising blitz, including a hotline, 1-800-Minute-1, people could call for recipe ideas.{{cite news |last1=Pollack |first1=Judann |title=Brand in Trouble: Minute Rice Hurt by Lack of Support, Store Brands |url=https://adage.com/article/news/brand-trouble-minute-rice-hurt-lack-support-store-brands/67030 |access-date=27 February 2023 |agency=Ad Age |date=26 January 1998}}
The Minute Rice product was sold to Ebro Foods (part of Ebro Puleva) in the United States in 2006, and to Ronzoni Foods Canada Corporation in Canada, which was renamed Catelli Food Corporation. {{cite web |title=Ebro Puleva buys Kraft's Minute Rice business in Usa and Canada |url=https://www.ebrofoods.es/en/news/ebro-puleva-buys-krafts-minute-rice-business-in-usa-and-canada-06-07/ |website=ebrofoods.es |date=27 July 2006 |access-date=27 February 2023}}
References
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External links
- [http://www.minuterice.com/ Minute Rice website (US)]
- [http://www.minuterice.ca/ Minute Rice website (Canada)]
{{Instant foods}}
Category:Instant foods and drinks
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