Space Food Sticks facts for kids

Space Food Sticks were special snacks made for the Pillsbury Company in the late 1960s. A food expert named Howard Bauman helped create them. He also helped set up important rules for keeping food safe.

Food for Astronauts

Howard Bauman and his team were very important in making food for astronauts. They made the first solid food eaten in space! Astronaut Scott Carpenter ate small food cubes in 1962. Before that, John Glenn only drank Tang in space.

Pillsbury's food engineers also made other cool space foods. These included cake that wouldn't crumble. They even made meat that didn't need a fridge!

What Were Space Food Sticks?

In 1970, Pillsbury got a special legal right called a trademark for "Space Food Sticks." They described them as a "non-frozen energy snack." These snacks were shaped like rods. Pillsbury said they had a good balance of energy-giving ingredients.

Space Food Sticks were like an early version of today's energy bars. Pillsbury promoted them because they were linked to NASA. NASA worked hard to make safe and healthy food for space.

Marketing and Flavors

Pillsbury used the popularity of the Apollo space missions to sell Space Food Sticks. They marketed them as a "nutritionally balanced" snack for between meals. Each box had 14 sticks, wrapped separately.

They came in six different flavors. Some popular ones were peanut butter, caramel, and chocolate. In 1972, astronauts on Skylab 3 even ate special versions of these sticks. This was to test if they were easy to digest.

Where Did They Go?

Space Food Sticks disappeared from stores in North America during the 1980s. But they made a comeback in 2006! A company called Retrofuture Products brought them back. They released chocolate and peanut butter flavors.

You could buy them at flight museums, like the Kennedy Space Center. They were also sold online. Production stopped again in 2014.

In Australia, Space Food Sticks were made for many years. They had fewer flavors, usually just chocolate and caramel. They were first sold under the White Wings brand. Later, Nestlé sold them under their Starz brand. They were marketed to Australian kids as an energy food. Production stopped in 2014 there too. However, they briefly reappeared in 2019. This was to celebrate 50 years since the Apollo 11 Moon landing.