General Foods Corporation was a company established under that name by Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1929. It was previously known as Postum Cereal Company. General Foods, formerly shorthand for the General Foods Corporation, is now a brand of Kraft Foods.

Timeline of selected events

• 1953 - General Foods acquired Perkins Products Company, maker of Kool-Aid.
• 1957 - The company introduced Tang, which became available nationally two years later.
• 1964 - General Foods introduced Maxim, the first American brand of freeze-dried coffee.
• 1968 - General Foods makes its ill-advised purchase of the Burger Chef fast-food chain.
• 1969 - General Foods buys Rax Restaurants.
• 1971 - General Foods acquired the maker of Gevalia.
• 1978 - General Foods sells Rax Restaurants to Rac.
• 1981 - General Foods acquired Oscar Mayer & Company.
• 1985 - General Foods was acquired by Philip Morris for $5.6 billion, the largest non-oil acquisition ever; four years later (1989), after the even larger acquisition of Kraft Foods, Philip Morris combines the two into a company called Kraft General Foods.
• 1995 - Kraft General Foods became Kraft Foods, and General Foods became a brand.

1929 establishments | 1995 disestablishments | Kraft brands | Defunct companies of the United States | Food companies of the United States | Altria Group subsidiaries