On Mac and Cheese Day, a look at how Kraft’s blue box became a pantry staple

Mac and cheese is a comfort food that rarely fails to please. With National Macaroni and Cheese Day landing on Sunday, it's a good time to salute the heavyweight champ of boxed mac and cheese: Kraft Mac and Cheese.

The idea of combining pasta with cheese dates back to 160 B.C. Rome, according to food site Epicurious. The earliest known recorded recipe bubbled up in Northern Europe in 1769, a few decades before President Thomas Jefferson served it at an 1802 state dinner, Smithsonian Magazine has written.

In 1914, the J.L. Kraft & Bros. Co., which eventually became Kraft Foods, built its first cheese manufacturing plant and made 6 million pounds of cheese to feed soldiers during World War I.

During the Great Depression, Kraft introduced its boxed macaroni and cheese, a meal for four costing 19 cents, Smithsonian Magazine wrote. Originally called Kraft Dinner (and it's still called that in Canada) when it came out in 1937, the product sold 9 million boxes in its first year on the market, Kraft Heinz says.

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As the first dry packaged dinner on the market, the company said, the boxed dish became "a hearty substitute for many during the rationing of meat and dairy during World War II," the company said in a statement to USA TODAY. Sales in 1943 surpassed 50 million packages, according to Kraft Heinz.

"It was a cheap way to feed a family, became massively popular, and mac and cheese has been a comfort food staple ever since," noted Bon Appetit in an October 2023 ranking of boxed macaroni and cheese (it fared well, but didn't come out the winner).

These days, the Kraft Heinz Co. says it sells roughly more than 1 million boxes daily.

“For over 85 years, Kraft Mac & Cheese has been there through through every stage of our fans’ lives," said Ashleigh Calderone, Kraft Heinz' senior brand manager for Kraft Mac & Cheese. "With each bowl of creamy, cheesy noodles, we’ve offered them reassuring comfort and familiarity when they need a reset."

Here's a look at some major moments for Kraft Mac and Cheese.

1954: Kraft Macaroni and Cheese gets its iconic blue box

Originally, the product's box was mainly yellow, but nearly two decades in, the food company changed to blue, according to Nexstar Media Group.

2006: Kraft makes more modes of mac and cheese

As Kraft Macaroni & Cheese continued to dominate, the company began making new spinoffs including an organic mac and cheese and individual mac and cheese serving bowls (just add water, microwave, and then add the cheesy sauce).

2016: Kraft changes mac and cheese recipe

The food maker said it wasn't bowing to consumer pressure when it announced plans to replace synthetic colors in the food with colors made from natural sources such as paprika, annatto and turmeric.

"Our loyal fans told us they don't want their Kraft Mac & Cheese to look or taste different," Kraft spokeswoman Lynne Galia told USA TODAY at the time. "We've worked hard so the new recipe will have the same look and taste that people know and love from the iconic blue box."

2020: Sales of Kraft Mac and Cheese rise during COVID, dip when SNAP took a hit

During the COVID-19 lockdown, sales of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese boomed, with some folks even eating it for breakfast, Business Insider reported.

More than half of parents (56%) said they served their kids mac and cheese for breakfast more than in the past during lockdowns, the company found in a survey of 1,000 parents done during summer 2020. So, Kraft Heinz put out a limited-edition Kraft Mac & Cheese "Breakfast Box" in early 2021.

“A Kraft Mac & Cheese breakfast is a win-win for families at a time when they need all the wins they can get,” said Kraft Heinz brand manager Kelsey Cooperstein at the time.

Conversely, earlier this year, Kraft Heinz saw a dip in mac and cheese sales during the last months of 2023 with the February 2023 expiration of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits passed during the pandemic.

The company's mac and cheese business "is driven disproportionately by our SNAP exposure," Kraft Heinz CEO Carlos Abrams-Rivera said in February during a discussion with investment analysts about the company's fiscal year 2023 financial performance.

2022: Kraft Mac and Cheese gets new name and look

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese became Kraft Mac and Cheese in June 2022 – a name change meant "to reflect the way fans organically talk about the brand," Kraft Heinz said at the time.

The product's blue box also got a makeover with a more prominent noodle smile, dripping with liquid cheese, and new bolder font with white letters instead of yellow.

2023: A plant-based version of Kraft Mac and Cheese arrives

In late November 2023, Kraft Heinz announced it had teamed with TheNotCompany, a Chicago startup that makes plant-based milk, burgers and other products, to create Kraft NotMac&Cheese.

The Kraft Heinz Not Company joint venture, which had previously collaborated on NotCheese Slices and NotMayo, began rolling out NotMac&Cheese through early 2024 in the U.S. and continues its international expansion.

NotMac&Cheese comes in two flavors − original and white cheddar − and replaces dairy with ingredients like fava bean protein and coconut oil powder.

Kraft Mac and Cheese nutritional information

Here are nutrition details on a prepared serving of Kraft Original Mac & Cheese Dinner, according to Kraft Heinz.

Calories: 360Total fat: 12 g (16% of daily value)Cholesterol: 10 mg (4%)Sodium: 710 mg (31%)Total carbohydrates: 49 g (18%)Protein: 10 g

Contributing: Wyatte Grantham-Phillips and Gabe Hauari.

Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.

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