POPCORN

Popcorn is the original puffed snack food. Popcorn is also probably the oldest snack food in the in the world. Corn has been a basic food source to the inhabitants of the American continents for over 5000 years. Today corn has been cultivated so long that the original wild grains are hard to find. All the Native Americans ate corn as a staple part of their diet. They also ate popcorn. The oldest positively identified corn popper’s date from about 300 AD along the Northeast coast of Peru. The oldest written record is from the Spaniards in 1650. The early American pioneers cultivated popcorn along with dent corn. Dent corn was used for cornbread, and popcorn was used as a breakfast cereal.

The 1893 Colombian exposition in Chicago was a turning point for popcorn. Cracker Jack was introduced and became the first commercially successful snack food based on popcorn. It was at this same exposition that Charles Cretors introduced his mobile, gasoline fired popcorn machine. This new machine improved the production method so much that popcorn was able to move out of the home kitchen and into the concession stand and retail store.