Fray Bentos (food brand) facts for kids
Fray Bentos is a well-known food brand. It makes tinned meat products, like corned beef and later meat pies. You can find Fray Bentos products in the United Kingdom, other parts of Europe, and Australia. The brand started in the late 1800s. Its name comes from the port of Fray Bentos in Uruguay. This is where all the company's products were made and packed until the 1960s.
Today, the Fray Bentos brand in the UK belongs to Baxters. They make the products in Scotland. The Campbell Soup Company also makes and sells Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies in Australia.
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What Fray Bentos Sells Today
The Fray Bentos brand is famous in the United Kingdom for its tinned meat pies. These include popular kinds like steak and kidney, and minced beef and onion. Since 2011, Baxters has owned the brand in the UK. They make Fray Bentos products at their factory in Fochabers, Scotland.
Besides meat pies, Fray Bentos also offers tinned meat puddings and meatballs. They even have microwaveable pasta and rice dishes with meat. Sales of Fray Bentos products have changed over the years. However, many people in the UK still love them. Baxters calls Fray Bentos an "iconic British brand."
In Australia, the Campbell Soup Company still makes and sells Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies.
History of Fray Bentos
Early Years with Liebig: 1873–1924
In 1865, a German chemist named Justus von Liebig started the Liebig's Extract of Meat Company in Britain. This company built a factory in Uruguay. They made a beef extract product there, which later became known as Oxo. In 1873, the factory began making tinned corned beef. This corned beef was sold in Britain under the name Fray Bentos. The name came from the town in Uruguay where the factory was located.
Liebig officially registered Fray Bentos as a trade mark in 1881. It was mainly used for selling corned beef. In fact, Fray Bentos became so well-known that it was almost another word for corned beef.
Fray Bentos corned beef was popular with working-class families. The tins were also perfect for army rations. They weighed just one pound and were easy to carry. During the Second Boer War, the company's profits grew a lot. This was because they supplied corned beef to the British Army in South Africa. Fray Bentos corned beef was also given to soldiers in World War I. Soldiers even used "Fray Bentos" as slang to mean "good." One of the early British tanks in the Battle of Passchendaele was nicknamed "Fray Bentos." This was because the soldiers inside felt like they were in a tin.
The Vestey Era: 1924–1968
In 1924, the Vestey Group bought Liebig Extract of Meat Company and the Fray Bentos brand. They renamed the factory in Uruguay Frigorífico Anglo del Uruguay. It was also known as the "Anglo Meatpacking Company."
Fray Bentos was most popular during World War II. It supplied meat to the Allied forces. In 1943 alone, Fray Bentos sent over 16 million cans of corned beef to Europe. British soldiers fighting in North Africa called it "Desert Chicken." The Anglo factory in Fray Bentos was very busy. At its busiest, it had over 5,000 workers from more than 50 countries. They processed 400 cows every hour. Because of the high demand for Fray Bentos products, the Uruguayan money became more valuable than the US dollar for a time.
After the war, Fray Bentos products were a common food in Britain. The company started making other tinned meat pies. These included steak and kidney, and minced beef and onion. In 1958, Vestey began making Fray Bentos pies in England. Production moved to a factory in the London Borough of Hackney.
In 1964, there was a health issue in Aberdeen. An outbreak of typhoid was linked to a tin of Fray Bentos corned beef. The corned beef had become contaminated during its cooling process. This was because untreated water was used.
By the end of the 1960s, Vestey sold the Anglo factory to the Uruguayan government. In 1968, they sold Liebig to Brooke Bond. These two companies then joined to form Brooke Bond Liebig.
Changes in Ownership: 1968–2013
Unilever bought Brooke Bond Liebig in 1984. Then, in 1993, the Campbell Soup Company bought Fray Bentos from Unilever. The Hackney factory closed that same year. Production moved to Campbell's factory in King's Lynn.
Later, Campbell's sold its Fray Bentos rights in the UK to Premier Foods in 2006. However, Campbell's still makes and sells steak and kidney pies in Australia under the Fray Bentos name. Premier Foods closed the King's Lynn factory in 2007. They moved Fray Bentos production to their factory in Long Sutton, Lincolnshire.
In 2011, Princes Group bought Premier Foods' canning division, which included Fray Bentos. But due to a competition review, Princes had to sell Fray Bentos right away. Baxters, the current owners, bought it. They announced that production would move to their site in Fochabers, Scotland. This move was finished in 2013.
Fray Bentos with Baxters: Since 2013
Baxters added new products to the Fray Bentos range. These included "deep fill" pies, though these were stopped by 2022. They also introduced microwaveable bowl products. During the COVID-19 lockdowns in the United Kingdom, sales of canned goods grew a lot. Fray Bentos sales increased by 29% in 2020.
