Kraft Dinner facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Kraft Dinner

Kraft Mac & Cheese logo used in the United States since 2022
A bowl of original recipe (aka "original flavour")
Owner	Kraft Heinz
Introduced	1937; 88 years ago (1937)
Markets	United States and Canada
Previous owners	Kraft Foods Inc. (1937-2012)

Kraft Dinner is a very popular packaged food. In Canada, it's often called KD. In the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, it's known as Kraft Mac & Cheese. In the United Kingdom and other places, it's simply Mac and Cheese.

This product is made by Kraft Foods Group. It usually comes in a cardboard box. Inside, you'll find dried macaroni pasta and a packet of processed cheese powder. It first came out in 1937 in both Canada and the U.S. Canadians love it a lot, eating 55% more boxes per person than Americans.

Today, there are many similar boxed macaroni and cheese products. Kraft also makes fancy versions with liquid cheese. You can even find frozen mac-and-cheese meals that you heat in a microwave. Kraft has also created many different flavors and types. One popular one is Dinner Cups, which used to be called Easy Mac. These are single-serving meals made for microwave ovens.

When it was first made during the Great Depression, this product was a big deal. It was easy to store because it combined dried macaroni noodles with cheese powder. To make it, you cook the pasta. Then, you add the cheese powder, along with butter (or margarine) and milk.

The Story of Kraft Mac & Cheese

How It Started

For a packaged macaroni and cheese product to last a long time, processed cheese had to be invented. Special salts in processed cheese help keep it fresh longer. James Lewis Kraft didn't invent processed cheese. But he did get a patent for a way to process it in 1916. He then built his cheese business.

During the Great Depression, a salesman named Grant Leslie had a clever idea. He thought of selling macaroni pasta and cheese together in one package. He started by attaching grated cheese to boxes of pasta with a rubber band.

Becoming Popular

In 1937, Kraft launched the product in the U.S. and Canada. The timing was perfect for its success. During World War II, many foods like milk were rationed. People also ate more meals without meat. More women were working outside the home. This created a huge demand for an easy, filling meal for families.

The product could last for ten months. This was great because many Canadian homes didn't have refrigerators back then. Also, people could get two boxes for just one food ration stamp. The first box was mostly yellow. During the war, 50 million boxes were sold! In 1954, the box color changed to blue. Later, ads encouraged kids to ask for "The Blue Box."

New Shapes and Flavors

• In 1975, a version with spiral-shaped noodles came out.
• Velveeta Shells & Cheese were introduced in 1984.
• In 1999, Easy Mac came out. This was a single-serving meal that only needed water.
• In 2006, the cheddar and white cheddar versions started using organic macaroni. Easy Mac Cups also came out that year.
• In 2007, the noodles changed to be 50 percent whole grain.
• Kraft also tried Macaroni & Cheese Crackers in 2007, but they were stopped in 2008.
• In 2010, a fancier line called Homestyle Deluxe was added. It came in three flavors.

Changes to Ingredients

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese sold in the United States used to have Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 dyes. These made the food a brighter color. In Europe, foods with Yellow 5 need a warning label. It says, "This product may have adverse effect on activity and attention in children." European versions of Kraft Mac & Cheese did not use artificial dyes.

In 2013, Kraft announced that new pasta shapes for kids in the U.S. would no longer have Yellow 5 and Yellow 6. They also planned to lower the salt and fat. They added more whole grains. By 2016, these changes, including removing artificial preservatives, were made to all products. Now, natural colors like paprika, annatto, and turmeric are used. Kraft said these changes were because customers asked for them.

In 2018, Kraft-Heinz released the KD Shaker. This was a plastic bottle of the powdered cheese from Kraft Mac and Cheese. It let people use the cheese powder however they wanted.

Kraft Mac & Cheese in Canada

Previous logo of the Canadian version

Many people call Kraft Dinner a national dish of Canada. It's made in Quebec with Canadian wheat and milk. Other ingredients come from Canada and the US. Canadians buy 1.7 million of the 7 million boxes sold worldwide each week. They eat about 3.2 boxes per person each year. This is 55% more than Americans.

It is the most popular grocery item in Canada. "Kraft Dinner" has become a very famous name there. It's often just called K.D., and Kraft now markets it that way.

Canadian writer Douglas Coupland said that Canadians have a special connection with Kraft food products. He noted that Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, or simply Kraft Dinner, is the biggest one. He said it targets Canadian favorite food groups: fat, sugar, starch, and salt. When surveys ask immigrants for examples of Canadian food, they often mention Kraft Dinner.

The Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies sing about Kraft Dinner in their song "If I Had $1000000". They say they would still eat this cheap food even if they were rich. Fans sometimes throw boxes of Kraft Dinner onto the stage during concerts. The band has asked them to donate the boxes to a food bank instead.

Former Prime Minister Paul Martin often said it was his favorite food. He also admitted he couldn't make it himself. Another former Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, said he cooked Kraft Dinner for his kids. He liked to add wieners. Many Canadians have their own special ways of making it. They might add different ingredients or change the cooking time.

Kraft Dinner is a common food for Canadian university students. Students protesting government cuts sometimes use Kraft Dinner to show their struggles.

What's in Kraft Mac & Cheese?

When prepared, Kraft Dinner is mostly carbohydrates (71%). It also has protein (11%) and fat (5%). A 100 gram serving gives you 382 calories. It's a good source of sodium (56% of your daily needs) and iron (25% of your daily needs). It also has some calcium (15% of your daily needs).

How to Make Kraft Mac & Cheese

The box has simple "cooking instructions" with three steps: "Boil," "Drain," and "Add."

• Boil: You boil water and add the pasta. The box tells you how long to cook the pasta.
• Drain: You use a colander to drain the water from the noodles.
• Add: You put all the ingredients back into the pot and mix them well.

The box suggests using 6 cups of water, 1 tablespoon of margarine, and 1/3 cup of skim milk for a "classic prep." But many people like to change these amounts. They might add salt to the water or leave out ingredients like milk.

Different Kinds of Kraft Mac & Cheese

Kraft Dinner is known as an inexpensive and easy-to-make comfort food. Its marketing often highlights how good a value it is and how convenient it is to prepare.

The product comes in different forms:

Commercial version of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese sold at Burger King

• Original Recipe: This is the classic version with dry macaroni pasta and a packet of powdered processed cheese. It also comes in different powdered cheese flavors.
• Deluxe: Instead of powdered cheese, this version has a prepared processed cheese sauce in a foil pouch. You just add the sauce directly to the cooked pasta. The pasta is also different, using elbow macaroni instead of the thin, straight macaroni.
• Dinner Cups: These are single-serving portions, once called Kraft Easy Mac. You make them in a microwave oven. They are popular with college students.
• Restaurant Version: A special frozen, fully prepared version is made for restaurants. You can find it at places like Burger King and Applebee's.
• Flavour Boosters: In 2021, Kraft Heinz released stir-in flavor packets in Canada. These include flavors like Jalapeño, Butter Chicken, Poutine, Buffalo Wings, Ghost Pepper, and Cotton Candy. You add them to your prepared Kraft Dinner for a new taste.

Kraft Dinner Smart

Kraft Dinner Smart (or KD Smart) is a healthier version of Kraft Dinner. These products have no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. They also have extra ingredients mixed into the noodles, like cauliflower, oats, or flax seed.

KD Smart first launched in Canada in 2010 with two vegetable varieties. In 2011, new packaging came out, along with two new types: Flax Omega-3 and High Fibre. This product is made with real Kraft cheddar cheese in Mount Royal, Quebec.

Flavors and Shapes

The pasta comes in many shapes. These include the original shape, popular cartoon characters, alphabet letters, numbers, and spirals. You can also find organic and whole-grain versions. A larger "family size" box is also available.

Some common flavors are:

• Original recipe
• Thick N' Creamy
• Three cheese
• Cheddar explosion
• White Cheddar
• Spicy Cheddar

How Kraft Mac & Cheese is Advertised

When it first came out, Kraft Dinner was advertised as "a meal for four in nine minutes for an everyday price of 19 cents." In the United States and other countries, it was renamed Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. But in Canada, it's still called Kraft Dinner. In the United Kingdom, it's also known as Cheesey Pasta.

In the United States, the product is heavily advertised to children on TV. Ads for younger kids often tell them to ask for "The Blue Box." In 2010, Kraft started a big marketing campaign for adults. It used a feeling of nostalgia to promote all types of Kraft Dinner. In Canada, Kraft also has ads to make the meal appealing to new immigrant groups.

Kraft Dinner often has special versions tied to popular characters for kids. Packages have come with pasta shaped like Looney Tunes, Super Mario Bros., and Star Wars characters. Kraft Foods has also released other products under the Kraft Dinner name, like different kinds of macaroni and cheese and even spaghetti.

To promote its "Cheddar Explosion" flavor, Kraft sponsored the demolition of Texas Stadium in 2010. Kraft paid $75,000 to local charities and donated another $75,000 in Kraft products. There was a national essay contest for children who had "made a difference in their community." The winner got to push the button to start the controlled demolition. The winner was 11-year-old Casey Rogers, who had started a charity for the homeless.

Gallery

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  Kraft Macaroni & Cheese preparation—pot of boiling water with pasta inside, package of cheese powder (labeled "Kraft cheese sauce mix"), and colander to separate the noodles from the cooking water

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  Kraft Dinner (with the KD label) is packaged with a processed cheese powder packet (Canada, 2018).

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  The American version of the cheese powder

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  Additional ingredients are needed for a "Classic Prep" of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese—milk, butter, and cheese powder—which are added to the noodles.

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  American Kraft Mac & Cheese served on a plate in Sweden, garnished with fresh spinach leaves

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  A Canadian meal—Kraft Dinner with added Cheddar that has been integrated with sliced vegetarian hot dog and accompanied by fresh tomato slices

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  Kraft Easy Mac close-up showing an orange glistening from the liquid cheese sauce that surrounds the noodles

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  Original-flavor Kraft Dinner sold in bulk 12-pack sizes in Canada

See also

In Spanish: Kraft Dinner para niños

• Cheez Whiz
• Hamburger Helper
• Velveeta Shells & Cheese