Globalization of American Food: Junk Food and Candy

Among the American foods available around the world are snack foods, sometimes called junk foods. In Eating History (2011), Smith notes the origins of Cracker Jacks as the first American snack food. Developed by German immigrants Louis and Frederick Rueckheim in 1895 and given an invaluable boost in the 1908 song “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” Cracker Jacks quickly became a major culinary success story. The product began selling in the United Kingdom in 1897 and Canada in 1901. By 1976 Cracker Jacks was available in fifty-three countries. Since then the company was bought by Borden Foods and is now part of the Frito-Lay branch of PepsiCo, the second largest consumer food corporation in the world. In addition to Cracker Jacks, the corporation markets its snack foods, along with specialty brands developed for other countries, around the world.