MasterFoods has its home in many Australian kitchens – whether it's a sauce, a spice or a recipe base (I could list a few more products), it has to appear once or twice in every cupboard.
To celebrate their 75th birthday, MasterFoods has opened the archives and shared some unique products that may have been forgotten.
MasterFoods was founded in 1945 as a family business and sold specialty foods, herbs and spices that were either imported or manufactured in its original warehouse in Sydney's Redfern and sold mainly in delis.
A timeline
In the 1950s, they produced their first groceries, bread and butter cucumbers, as well as other popular foods from the 1950s such as roll pug (pickled herring), mint jelly, sauerkraut and the hottest hot English mustard.
The Kangaroo Tail Soup served by Qantas Airways was launched in the 1960s, while in the 1970s the demand for spices and herbs for convenience packages increased.
MasterFood's own cookbooks were published in the 1980s, and the humble tomato sauce bottle was launched in the 1990s. A world's first squeeze sauce bottle as well as the legendary single-serve squeeze sauces, which are now indispensable in takeaways.
At the beginning of the new millennium, MasterFoods expanded its range with lifestyle-oriented convenience products and continued to influence how we cook and what we are at home.
Bring healthy to the kitchen
“Cooks in Australia have demonstrated great ingenuity from the start by experimenting with local foods and incorporating them into familiar dishes, adjusting and varying recipes and practices from other eating cultures, and largely ignoring traditional rules to develop dishes that are typical are Australian, ”he says international food writer and culinary historian Barbara Sanitch.
“For over 75 years, MasterFoods has been similarly creative, anticipating and responding to changes in taste and techniques with products like Chilly Sauce and Red Hot Pepper Sauce in the 1950s and Chunky Zucchini in Tomato & Parsley Sauce in the 1980s . "
General Manager Bill Heague of Mars Food Australia says: “As a family business, MasterFoods has recognized the physical and emotional benefits of having dinner together from the start and continues to strive to make mealtime not only tastier but also more meaningful.
“We want Australians to try new things and become villains in the kitchen, and we want to help families and friends discover the joy of cooking and having dinner together. We are constantly developing our brand to ensure that we are and always have been Australia's food brand. "
