Rice: Overview: Commercial Rice Products

Numerous commercial products made from rice have been manufactured in America. One of the early successful products was Puffed Rice, a cereal developed by Alexander P. Anderson, who in 1902 actually fired the rice out of a cannon to explode the grains. He created the Anderson Puffed Rice Company as a wholly owned subsidiary of Quaker Oats and first introduced Puffed Rice at the St. Louis Exposition in Missouri in 1904. The product’s attention-getting slogan was “Shot from Guns!”

The Kellogg Company first marketed Rice Krispies, a cold breakfast cereal, in 1928. Three gnomelike characters, originally drawn by Vernon Grant, were its mascots. “Snap!” first appeared in 1933, while “Crackle!” and “Pop!” were introduced in 1941. Eight years later, the characters were changed to look more elfin and appealing. The recipe for Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats, made by mixing the cereal with melted marshmallows, was introduced in 1933. Kellogg’s produced an advertising cookbooklet, Creative Cookery Rice Krispies Recipe Collection (1982).