The Oldest Food Brands in Your Pantry
Take a look around your kitchen and chances are you’ll spot a few brand names you’ve known your whole life. From Keebler cookies to Campbell’s soup, certain monikers feel like part of the family.
Food branding — the use of a distinctive name or mark to identify a product — emerged in the late 19th century as industrialization made large-scale food production and packaging possible. Before then, most foods were sold in bulk, with no consistent labeling. Branding introduced the idea of reliability and reputation, allowing consumers to recognize and trust particular producers.
A few food and drink companies, however, had already established identities long before branding became widespread. Some of these brand names predate the industrial era itself and have remained in continuous use for centuries. How many do you have in your pantry?
Twinings Tea (1706)
In 1706, English merchant Thomas Twining opened Tom’s Coffee House in London and began offering fine-quality tea alongside the typical coffee and hot chocolate, in the hopes of standing out from the competition. Social convention prohibited women from visiting coffeehouses, so Twining expanded his business in 1717 to include a coffee and tea shop where women could buy their tea directly.
The Twinings Tea logo, created in 1787, is recognized as the oldest continuously used unaltered corporate logo in the world, and the company has operated from the same address — 216 Strand in London — since its founding. It was acquired by Associated British Foods in 1964, though members of the Twining family are still involved in its operations.
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Baker’s Chocolate (1764)
Perhaps surprisingly, the baking chocolate in our favorite homemade desserts owes its name to its founder, not its use. Baker’s Chocolate began in 1764 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, when Irish immigrant John Hannon, a chocolate maker, and physician James Baker established a small mill on the Neponset River to grind cacao beans into drinking chocolate. When Hannon disappeared on a cocoa-buying voyage in 1779, Baker assumed full control and began marketing the product under his name.
In 1823, the company was formally incorporated as Walter Baker & Company, named for Baker’s grandson Walter. At the time, chocolate was consumed primarily as a beverage — Baker’s didn’t start manufacturing sweetened chocolate bars until 1849. The company went through multiple ownership changes during the 19th and 20th centuries but continued producing chocolate under the Baker’s name, which remains in use today as part of the Kraft Heinz Company.
King Arthur Baking Company (1790)
The company now known as King Arthur Baking traces its origins to 1790, when Boston merchant Henry Wood founded Henry Wood & Company to import and distribute flour. In 1896, the company — by then operating as Sands, Taylor & Wood — introduced its own flour brand under the name King Arthur Flour at the Boston Food Fair.
The company relocated to Norwich, Vermont, in the late 20th century and officially adopted the name King Arthur Flour Co. Employee-owned since 2004, the company updated its name to King Arthur Baking Company in 2020, maintaining continuity of its 19th-century brand name while reflecting its broader range of baking products.
Keebler (1853)
Keebler began in 1853 when German immigrant Godfrey Keebler opened a small bakery in Philadelphia. From there, he took on business partners and eventually incorporated under the name Keebler-Weyl Baking Company. In 1927, the business became part of the United Biscuit Company of America, which went on to adopt the Keebler brand name for all of its products in 1966. But it wasn’t until 1969 that the first Keebler elf — dubbed J.J. Keebler — was introduced in a television commercial. In 1936, Keebler-Weyl became the first commercial baker of Girl Scout Cookies; today, a division of Keebler, Little Brownie Bakers, continues the tradition.
Campbell’s (1869)
The company now synonymous with tomato soup began in 1869 in Camden, New Jersey, as a partnership between Joseph A. Campbell, a fruit and vegetable merchant, and Abraham Anderson, a commercial canner and packer. The business was initially called Anderson & Campbell and produced canned tomatoes, vegetables, and jellies. In 1895, the company introduced its first jar of ready-to-eat beefsteak tomato soup. Two years later, in 1897, chemist John T. Dorrance developed the firm’s condensed soup process, allowing it to be packaged in cans, and the following year the company introduced its iconic red-and-white soup can label. In 1922, the name changed to The Campbell Soup Company, and in 2024 it became The Campbell’s Company.
Pillsbury (1869)
At the recommendation of his uncle, Charles A. Pillsbury invested in a struggling Minneapolis flour mill in 1869. The business thrived under his management and he expanded operations along the Mississippi River, renaming the company Charles A. Pillsbury and Co. In 1889, the company was purchased by an English financial syndicate and merged with other holdings to become the Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company, Ltd. The Pillsbury family eventually regained ownership in the 1920s and incorporated the business as the Pillsbury Flour Mills Company in 1935. Ownership changed hands in subsequent decades and the historic company was acquired by General Mills in 2001.
Quaker Oats (1877)
The Quaker Oats story began in 1877, when Henry Seymour and William Heston founded the Quaker Mill Company in Ravenna, Ohio, and trademarked the Quaker Oats name and image of a Quaker man to distinguish their oats from competitors. The struggling mill was bought a few years later, in 1881, by entrepreneur Henry Parsons Crowell, who turned the brand into a national name with the first magazine ad campaign for a breakfast cereal.
In 1888, the Quaker Mill Company joined six other oat producers to form the American Cereal Company, which pioneered modern packaging and marketing. By 1891, Quaker was printing recipes — such as Oatmeal Bread — right on its boxes, another industry first. The company officially became The Quaker Oats Company in 1901, and a century later, after a 2001 acquisition by PepsiCo, the name evolved to Quaker Foods and Beverages.
