Today I want to talk about a guy named James L. Kraft. I think he’s kind of a big deal in the food industry, especially when it comes to cheese. So, I started by just trying to find out who this guy was. Turns out, he was born in Canada, a little place called Stevensville, Ontario, back in 1874.
From what I found, he was originally from a farming family. As a teenager, he worked at a local grocery store. That’s probably where he got his first taste of the food business. He moved to the United States in 1902, apparently to Buffalo, New York, where he went to a business college while working various odd jobs, including being a janitor and selling groceries like eggs, cheese, and ice. It’s also around this time that Kraft invested in a cheese company.
Later, in 1903, he kicked off a wholesale cheese delivery business in Chicago, which was pretty cool. A few years later, he and his brother Charles started processing cheese to sell to stores around them. Then, two more of their brothers joined in, and by 1909, they officially became a company called J.L. Kraft Bros.
Experimenting with cheese
Here’s where it gets really interesting. I came across a bit about his younger brother, Norman Kraft. Around 1935, Norman started messing around with new ways to make cheese. He poured hot liquid cheese onto a cold stainless steel table and cut it up. It sounds simple, but this was a big deal back then.
James L. Kraft, he did something really smart – he figured out a way to pasteurize cheese. It is said that he developed a patented pasteurization process for cheese. This meant that the cheese could be shipped long distances without spoiling. This was huge because, before that, it was tough to get cheese to places far away without it going bad.
Wrap up
- James L. Kraft, born in 1874 in Stevensville, Ontario.
- Moved to the U.S. in 1902, started a cheese delivery business in 1903.
- Developed a way to pasteurize cheese, making it last longer.
- His brother Norman also experimented with new cheesemaking methods.
- Founded Kraft Foods Inc., which became a major player in the food industry.
So, that’s the story of James L. Kraft as I pieced it together. A Canadian guy, born to a farming family of German origin, who started small but ended up changing how we deal with cheese. He passed away in 1953 in Chicago, but his legacy is still all over the grocery stores today. Pretty impressive, right?
