History of M&M®

Forrest Mars Sr., son of the Mars Company founder, Frank C. Mars, copied the idea for the candy in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War when he saw soldiers eating British-made Smarties, small chocolate beads encased with a hard colored shell, which prevented melting.

After returning to the United States in 1940, Forrest Mars used this idea and founded M&M Limited in Newark, New Jersey, to create candies in a sugar shell.

M&M® was named for the last names of Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie. Bruce, the son of Hershey executive William Murray, agreed to provide chocolate, sugar, technology and some capital. Even the first machines used to manufacture M&M came from modifying the equipment used to manufacture the Hershey’s Kiss.

The first M&M® were produced in 1914, packaged in a paper tube to prevent melting in warm weather.

In 1932, after a falling out with his father and business partner, Forrest Mars Sr. of the Mars candy company moved to England, where he began manufacturing Mars bars for troops.

In March of 1941, Mars was granted a patent for his manufacturing process and production began in Newark, New Jersey. The chocolates were initially designed to allow easy transport and consumption for the soldiers in the war. Originally sold in cardboard tubes, M&Ms were covered with a brown, red, orange, yellow, green or violet coating.

Forrest Mars, Sr. wanted to sell chocolates that could be sold year-round, especially during the summer months when sales traditionally decreased. By putting his chocolate inside the candy shell, the chocolate did not melt and M&Ms3 could be sold any time.

After the U.S. entered the war, the candies were exclusively sold to the military, enabling the heat-resistant and easy-to-transport chocolate to be included in American soldiers’ rations.

Peanut-centered M&Ms' were first introduced in 1954; almond-centered M&Ms'1988; mint chocolate M&Ms'1989; peanut butter chocolate (peanut butter creme center surrounded by chocolate surrounded by a candy shell)
History of M&M®

History of apple cider

Drawings from the Paleolithic age dates from between 35,000 and 8,000 BC depict apples, and the people of this era probably discovered that wild yeast would quickly act upon the fruits to ferment it. Prehistoric peoples would have tasted this kind of natural cider.

The Aryans, nomadic tribes appeared in history around 2500 BC developed a taste for “soured apple wine,” the forerunner of apple juice.

The name cider is rooted in the Phoenician “shekar” meaning wine or strong drink. In classical Greece apples were boiled and fermented to make “sikera”.

The cider-making technology was spread throughout the northern coast of Europe by Celts as they traveled from Spain to England and Ireland.

In 55 B.C.E., Romans invaded what is now Britain and noticed native Celts fermenting native crab apples to make cider. The apple was a sacred fruit to the Celtics according to their mythology.

The Muslim Moors are probably responsible for developing the bitter high tannin apples that make the richest ciders. In France, the Normans developed a love for cider and apple brandy. During Charlemagne era, era, he enforced laws to promote and control the manufacture and production of cider.

In North America the term for this alcoholic beverage is hard cider. Hard cider is believed to have roots from the winemaking technology in the Basque country of northern Spain. Hard cider came to the U.S. with the first English settlers, who brought apple seeds with them to plant in their new home.

In 1623, William Blackstone of Plymouth planted the first cultivated tree. Other American followed suit and planted trees wherever they would grow. Pressing and fermenting apple juice served as the easiest way for farmers to preserve the apple harvest and farmers typically used cider as the basis for many other products, including cider vinegar, applejack.

Historical records reveal that cider was an integral part of every life of rural folk in 19th century New England, Cider presses were part of the New England landscape.

In England, Lord Scudamore is credited with having bottled cider as early as the 1640s at Home Lacy, at a time when almost all cider was stored in wooden barrels and drawn off “on draft” as needed.

The slight fermentations that took place in the bottles released carbon dioxide gas, which produced a sparkling drink and helped preserve the cider better. Around the 18th century about two thousand varieties of apples were grown. Many scientific methods had been developed to improve and speed up the production of cider.
History of apple cider

Food irradiation process in history

Radioactivity was discovered in 1895 by Henry Becquerel. At the same year, there was a suggestion to use ionizing to destroy microorganisms in food was published in a German medical journal.

In 1905 a British patent was issued for use of ionizing radiation to kill bacteria in foods through food irradiation. B. Schwartz of the US department of Agriculture suggested the use of X-rays for inactivating trichinae in pork in 1921.

 In depth food radiation studies in the United States began in the early 1950s, when both radiation sources and processing requirement were developed to practical point.

Most of the studies have been government sponsored at least partly because the 1958 Food Additive Amendment to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act required advance proposal from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before any particular irradiated food could be publicly sold.

In the United Kingdom investigations on the effects of ionizing radiation on food began in 1950 at the Low Temperature Research Station at Cambridge an somewhat later at the Wantage Research Laboratories of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment.

Earlier work (1947-1952) was carried out by at least three private companies in the United States. In 1953 President D, Eisenhower made his landmark ‘Atoms for Peace’ address at the United Nations General Assembly. Many nations joined the research on peaceful uses of atomic energy including applications in food preservation.

A similar circumstance prevailed in other countries, resulting, worldwide, in predominantly government sponsored food irradiation research programs.

Because of the lack of research facilities in many third world countries, specialized agencies of the United States also became actively involved in international food irradiation research programs.

In 1976 The Joint FAO/IAEA/WHO Expert Committee on the Wholesomeness of Irradiated Food gave a clean bill of health to several irradiated foods and recommended that food irradiated to be classified as a physical process.
Food irradiation process in history

Canning of fish

Nicholas Appert invents canning method in 1810. He put fresh or cooked meat, fish or vegetables in bottles, sealed them and then heated them in boiling water.  Fish and lobsters were among the preserved food delivered by Nicholas to the French government soon after the publication of his method.

In 1820 the first canning plants start to operate in Boston and New York.

Lobster canning is reported form the United Kingdom in 1817 and soon spread to the United States with lobster and salmon as early packs.

In early days ‘appertized’ foods were mostly packaged in glass containers. Fish canning was introduced to the Atlantic seaboard of America by English immigrants and the tin ‘cannister’ was invented in 1810. It first received its abbreviation ‘can’ in New England.

The use of steam was introduced around 1840. By then a sardine canning industry was already well established in France.

In 1864 canning was started on the US Pacific Coast, where an abundant supply of salmon gave rose to rapid expansion which later, this commodity entering world trade spreading to Japan and Siberia. Tuna fish is first canned in 1909 in United States
Canning of fish