For most Americans, when it comes to peanut butter, there is only one key question - do you want it to be creamy or crunchy?
What most consumers don't realize is that either choice has been developed through nearly 100 years of technological innovation and market development, making peanut butter a very popular snack in the United States, though not necessarily the most popular.
Peanut butter products are known for their unique flavor, affordability, and compatibility, and can be eaten on their own, spread on bread, or even spooned into desserts.
The CNBC financial website reports that data from Chicago-based research firm Circana shows that spreading bread with peanut butter alone, which consumes an average of about 20 cents of peanut butter per serving, made peanut butter a $2 billion industry last year.
The longevity of peanut butter in the U.S. can be attributed to several factors, but first and foremost, advances in hydrogenation technology in the early 20th century made it possible to transport peanut butter.
Experts believe that farmers in the southern United States had been grinding peanuts into a paste for years in the 1800s, before peanut butter became widely successful. However, at that time, peanut butter would segregate during transportation or storage, with the peanut oil gradually floating to the top and the peanut butter settling to the bottom of the container and drying out, making it difficult to bring the peanut butter back to its freshly ground, creamy state, and hampering consumers' ability to consume it.
In 1920, Peter Pan (formerly known as E.K. Pond) became the first brand to commercially develop peanut butter, ushering in the way peanut butter is consumed today. Using a patent from Skippy founder Joseph Rosefield, the brand revolutionized the peanut butter industry by pioneering the use of hydrogenation to produce peanut butter. Skippy introduced a similar product in 1933, and Jif introduced a similar product in 1958. Skippy remained the leading peanut butter brand in the United States until 1980.
The so-called hydrogenation technology is peanut butter mixed with some hydrogenated vegetable oil (about 2% of the amount), so that the oil and sauce in the peanut butter will not be separated, and remain slippery, easy to spread on the bread, so that the consumer market for peanut butter has brought about a sea change.
Peanut butter's popularity in U.S. households is 90 percent, on par with other staples such as breakfast cereals, granola bars, soups and sandwich bread, according to Matt Smith, vice president of Stifel Financial Corp.
Three brands, J.M. Smucker's Jif, Hormel Foods' Skippy and Post-Holdings' Peter Pan, account for two-thirds of the market, according to market research firm Circana. Jif has 39.4%, Skippy 17% and Peter Pan 7%.
Ryan Christofferson, senior brand manager for Four Seasons at Hormel Foods, said, "Peanut butter has been a consumer favorite for decades, not only as a jarred product, but it continues to evolve in new forms of consumption and in new places of consumption. People are thinking about how to get peanut butter into more snacks, desserts and other foods, and even into cooking sauces."
Americans consume 4.25 pounds of peanut butter per capita per year, a figure that temporarily increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the National Peanut Board.
Bob Parker, president of the National Peanut Board, said, "Per capita consumption of peanut butter and peanuts reached a record 7.8 pounds per capita. During COVID, people were so stressed that they had to work remotely, kids had to go to school remotely, and they had fun with peanut butter. It sounds strange, but for many Americans, peanut butter is the ultimate comfort food, reminding them of happy childhood days."
Perhaps the most potent use of peanut butter that has endured for the past hundred years and even the next hundred years is nostalgia. From eating peanut butter sandwiches on the playground to celebrating birthdays with peanut butter pie, these memories have given peanut butter a permanent place in society and even in the space station.
Post time: Jun-25-2024