Jiffy Pop

Jiffy Pop Popcorn

Jiffy Pop is a popcorn brand of ConAgra Foods. The product combines popcorn kernels, oil, and flavoring agents with a heavy-gauge aluminum foil pan and expandable, light-gauge aluminum foil cover. As the pan is heated, the popping corn causes the cover foil to unfold and puff up. "Jiffy" in the name alludes to the short cooking time.

History

Frederick C. Mennen of LaPorte, Indiana, a chemist, inventor and industrialist,^[1] is credited with developing the product in 1958. Mennen began marketing Jiffy Pop in 1959.^[2] American Home Products purchased Jiffy Pop from Mennen that same year, and within one year the product had reached the national U.S. market. In the 1970s, the stage magician Henri Bouton fils, better known as Harry Blackstone, Jr., was endorsing what the television-commercial jingle called "the magic treat--as much fun to make as it is to eat."

Jiffy Pop was based on a similar product designed five years before by Benjamin Coleman of Berkley, Michigan, and marketed by the Taylor-Reed Corporation as E-Z Pop.^[3] In the early 1960s, Taylor-Reed sued Mennen Food Products for patent infringement. The district court ruled for the plaintiff, finding Jiffy Pop and E-Z equivalent products, but the case was overturned on appeal.^[4]

American Home Products spun off its food division, and renamed it International Home Foods, in 1996. In 2000, ConAgra purchased International Home Foods.

Original Jiffy Pop packages used a plain, bright aluminum pan. This was eventually replaced by an aluminum pan with a black treatment on the outside to improve heat transfer. Also, although at one time a "Natural" flavor and a Jiffy Pop Microwave Popcorn version was manufactured, as of 2013 Jiffy Pop is offered in only one stove top version, Butter Flavor Popcorn.^[5]

Advertising

Jiffy Pop has run television commercials dating back at least to 1967. In one commercial, a genie appears and gives two children Jiffy Pop to eat. The slogan was repeated several times to highlight the fact that Jiffy Pop is "as fun to make as it is to eat".^[6]

See also

• List of popcorn brands
• Food portal

References

1. "Obituaries: Frederick C. Mennen; Industrialist, 62". New York Times. March 22, 1991. Retrieved June 26, 2011.
2. http://www.conagrafoods.com/consumer/brands/getBrand.do?page=jiffy_pop ConAgra Jiffy Pop: Fact Sheet
3. Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America, by Andrew F. Smith, 1999.
4. The Taylor-Reed Corporation v. Mennen Food Products, Inc., American Home Products Corporation, and Frederick C. Mennen
5. "Jiffy Pop Popcorn and Stove-Top Popping Pan - ConAgra Foods". conagrafoods. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
6. "Jiffy Pop". Snack Memory. Retrieved 16 May 2015.

Further reading

• Andrew F. Smith (1999). Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 1-57003-300-5.
• Adeena Sussman (2006). Just Heat It and Eat It!: Convenience Foods of the '40s-'60s. Collectors Press. ISBN 1-933112-19-0.
• Carolyn Wyman (2004). Better Than Homemade: Amazing Food That Changed the Way We Eat. Quirk Books. ISBN 1-931686-42-4.

External links

• www.conagrafoods.com — Jiffy Pop official page at ConAgra Foods