Basic American Foods is an American food corporation.[1][2][3] The company, which is privately owned, claims three-quarters of the North American dehydrated potato granule market.[4]

Overview

It was started in 1933 by Jaquelin H. Hume and his brother Bill Hume as a dehydration processing plant in Vacaville, California.[1][3] In the 1950s, they established a potato processing plant in Blackfoot, Idaho, whereby potato powder could be turned into mashed potatoes by adding boiling water.[1] This technique was used by brands such as Potato Pearls, Golden Grill, Classic Casserole and Savory Series.[1] In 1986, they invented the same technique for beans, for brands such as Santiago Refried Beans and later Santiago Black Beans and Santiago Quick-Start Chili.[1] The company holds forty patents for food production.[1]

Basic American Foods competes with General Mills, Pillsbury and Sunspiced, Inc.[4] The company, however, had an agreement with General Mills for it to manufacture the dehydrated potato products that it sells under its Betty Crocker brand.[4] During the 1990s, Basic American Foods also acquired Pillsbury’s entire food service business, including its facility at Shelley, Idaho.[4]

Basic American Foods is led by Jaquelin's sons, William J. Hume and George H. Hume.[1] It is headquartered in Walnut Creek, California.[2][3] The company is one of the original members of a consortium led by Avure Technologies[5] formed for the Department of Defense Dual Use S&T (DUST) program.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Official website, Our History". Archived from the original on 2014-10-21. Retrieved 2013-02-21.
  2. 1 2 Yahoo! Archived March 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  3. 1 2 3 Bloomberg BusinessWeek
  4. 1 2 3 4 Guenthner, Joseph (2001). The International Potato Industry. Cambridge, UK: Woodhead Publishing Limited. p. 251. ISBN 1-85573-465-6.
  5. 1 2 Balasubramaniam, V. M.; Barbosa-Cánovas, Gustavo V.; Lelieveld, Huub (2016). High Pressure Processing of Food: Principles, Technology and Applications. New York: Springer. p. 688. ISBN 978-1-4939-3233-7.


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