Kraft Dinner

Kraft Dinner (marketed as KD) in Canada, Kraft Mac & Cheese in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Mac and Cheese in the United Kingdom and internationally, is a nonperishable, packaged macaroni and cheese mix. It is made by Kraft Foods Group (or former parent company Mondelez internationally) and traditionally cardboard-boxed with dried macaroni pasta and a packet of processed cheese powder. It was introduced under the Kraft Dinner name simultaneously in both Canada and the U.S. in 1937. The brand is particularly popular with Canadians, who consume 55% more boxes per capita than Americans.
There are now many similar products, including private label, of nonperishable boxed macaroni and cheese. Commercially, the line has evolved, with deluxe varieties marketed with liquid processed cheese and microwavable frozen mac-and-cheese meals. The product by Kraft has developed into many flavour variations and formulations, including Easy Mac (a product that has since been renamed Mac & Cheese Dinner Cups), a single-serving product specifically designed for microwave ovens.
The product's innovation, at the time of the Great Depression, was to conveniently market nonperishable dried macaroni noodles together with a processed cheese powder. The product is prepared by cooking the pasta and adding the cheese powder along with butter (or margarine) and milk.
The prerequisite to a shelf-stable packaged macaroni and cheese product was the invention of processed cheese, where emulsifying salts help stabilize the product, giving it a longer life. While living in Chicago, James Lewis Kraft of Fort Erie, Ontario, began to build his cheese business after winning a patent for one such method in 1916.
During the Great Depression, a St. Louis, Missouri, salesman, Grant Leslie of Dundee, Scotland, had the idea to sell macaroni pasta and cheese together as a package, so he began attaching grated cheese to boxes of pasta with a rubber band. In 1937, Kraft introduced the product in the U.S. and Canada. The timing of the product's launch had much to do with its success: during World War II, the rationing of milk and dairy products, increased reliance on meatless meals, and more women working outside the home created a large market for the product, which was considered a hearty meal for families. Its shelf life of ten months was attractive at a time when many Canadian homes did not have refrigerators. Also, consumers could receive, for one food ration stamp, two boxes. The original box was primarily yellow. 50 million boxes were sold during the war. The box's primary colour changed to blue in 1954, later used in an advertising campaign where children were encouraged to ask for "The Blue Box".
Marye Dahnke, Kraft’s resident chef, suggested reviving macaroni and cheese after Kraft was facing competition from Miracle Whip.
A version with spiral-shaped noodles debuted in 1975, while Velveeta Shells & Cheese were introduced in 1984. A single-serving variation requiring only water for preparation was introduced as Easy Mac in 1999. In 2006, the cheddar and white cheddar versions switched to organic macaroni, while Easy Mac Cups were introduced the same year. In 2007, the noodles switched to 50 percent whole grain.
Macaroni & Cheese Crackers also debuted in 2007. The crackers were discontinued in 2008, as they did not meet company targets. A sub-line, Homestyle Deluxe, was added in 2010 in three flavours: cheddar, four-cheese sauce, and Old World Italian.
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese sold in the United States used to include Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 to make the food a brighter colour. In Europe, food that contains Yellow 5 requires a warning label saying, "This product may have adverse effect on activity and attention in children." In 2014, none of the European varieties were made with artificial dyes.
In November 2013, Kraft announced that new pasta shape varieties for children in the U.S. would no longer include Yellow 5 and Yellow 6, the sodium and saturated fat content would decrease, and there would be six more grams of whole grains.
In April 2015, it was announced that those changes, including the elimination of artificial preservatives, would be extended throughout the line after January 2016. Paprika, annatto and turmeric are used for colouring. According to Kraft, the changes were a response to consumer feedback.
In 2018, Kraft-Heinz introduced the KD Shaker, which was a plastic bottle of Kraft Mac and Cheese Dinner's powdered cheese, allowing one to use the cheese powder as they wish, without needing to worry about unused pasta. The product is similar to shelf-stable Parmesan cheese powder bottle cans.
Kraft Dinner has been called a de facto national dish of Canada. Packaged in Quebec with Canadian wheat and milk, and other ingredients from Canada and the US, Canadians purchase 1.7 million of the 7 million boxes sold globally each week and eat an average of 3.2 boxes of Kraft Dinner each year, 55% more than Americans. The meal is the most popular grocery item in the country, where "Kraft Dinner" has an iconic status and has become a generic trademark of sorts for macaroni and cheese. It is often simply referred to, and (as of 2023) is now marketed by the initials K.D. As Kraft Dinner has a different name in Canada from the United States and other markets, the Canadian marketing and advertising platform is a made-in-Canada effort that cannot be easily adapted to the US market.
Pundit Rex Murphy wrote that "Kraft Dinner revolves in that all-but-unobtainable orbit of the Tim Hortons doughnut and the A&W Teen Burger. It is one of that great trinity of quick digestibles that have been enrolled as genuine Canadian cultural icons." Douglas Coupland wrote that "cheese plays a weirdly large dietary role in the lives of Canadians, who have a more intimate and intense relationship with Kraft food products than the citizens of any other country. This is not a shameless product plug – for some reason, Canadians and Kraft products have bonded the way Australians have bonded with Marmite [sic, recte:Vegemite], or the English with Heinz baked beans. In particular, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, known simply as Kraft Dinner, is the biggie, probably because it so precisely laser-targets the favoured Canadian food groups: fat, sugar, starch and salt." Immigrants often mention Kraft Dinner when surveys ask for examples of Canadian food. As a measure of the product's Canadian popularity, its Facebook page, KD Battle Zone, attracted 270,000 fans, despite there being no prizes for the contest.
Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies refer to the product in their popular song "If I Had $1000000", indicating that they would continue to eat the inexpensive foodstuff even if they were millionaires. This has often prompted fans at live concerts to throw boxes of Kraft Dinner onto the stage when the line is sung; the band has discouraged this and has urged fans to donate the boxes to their local food bank instead.
On similar note, Canadian thrash metal band Annihilator celebrated Kraft Dinner in their song "Kraf dinner" (sic) on their 1990 album Never, Neverland, and Canadian alternative country singer-songwriter Boy Golden in "KD and Lunch Meat" on his 2021 album Church of Better Daze.
Former Prime Minister Paul Martin regularly referred to it as his favourite food, though he also confessed that he was unable to prepare it. During the same election former Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that "I'll never be able to give my kids a billion-dollar company, but Laureen and I are saving for their education. And I have actually cooked them Kraft Dinner—I like to add wieners." Most Canadians ignore the instructions and use alternate methods of preparing the food, like adding wieners or cheese. Additional ingredients are not always necessary; simply adjusting the cooking time and the amount of milk or butter/margarine can produce a dish ranging from soft noodles in a creamy sauce to firm noodles in a thin, milky sauce.
In the September 2012 issue of The Walrus magazine, the story "Kraft Dinner is Canada's True National Dish" by Sasha Chapman details the history of the Canadian cheese industry and Kraft's impact on it. She notably draws attention to Canada being unique in favouring a manufactured food product (made by a foreign company) as its national dish at the expense of local cheeses. Chapman's article is structured around this question, from the first page:
Kraft Dinner is a frequent staple of Canadian university student diets. Consequently, university students protesting government funding cuts and tuition hikes have often used Kraft Dinner as a prop to draw attention to their plight.
Prepared Kraft Dinner is 71% carbohydrates, 11% protein, and 5% fat (table). In a 100 grams (3.5 ounces) reference serving, Kraft Dinner supplies 382 calories and rich contents (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of sodium (56% DV) and iron (25% DV), with calcium in moderate content (15% DV) (table).
The box describes a simple three-step process (the "cooking instructions") for preparing the dinner. The 1-2-3 directions include "Boil," "Drain," and "Add." "Boiling" is further defined as boiling water and adding the pasta, with no reference to added salt or covering of the pan. The directions indicate the pasta cooking time, usually as a range. The "Drain" step shows a colander being used. The last step, "Add," says to add all the ingredients back to the pot (with no reference to whether to leave the pot on the stove or turn off the burner) and mix thoroughly.
Although many people have their personal preferences for quantities of added ingredients, the box has a "classic prep" list that says to use 6 cups (~1,440 mL) water, 1 tbsp (15 mL) margarine and 1/3 cup (~80 mL) skim milk. People may also vary the "cooking instructions" to their preferences, including adding salt to the water or omitting ingredients like milk.
New product lines using different flavours and pasta shapes have been introduced over the decades, and shelf life has increased at various times. Kraft Dinner is seen as an inexpensive, easy-to-make comfort food, with marketing that highlights its value and convenience.
The product is now available in a variety of compositions:
Kraft Dinner Smart (also known as KD Smart) launched as a healthy sub-brand of the Kraft Dinner brand. It represents a line of Kraft macaroni and cheese products with no artificial flavours, colours, or preservatives and added ingredients like cauliflower, oats, or flax seed blended into the noodles. It comes in four varieties:
Kraft Dinner Smart launched in Canada in March 2010 with two vegetable varieties. In June 2011, the line-up was re-launched with new packaging graphics and two new varieties (Flax Omega-3 and High Fibre).
The product is made with real Kraft cheddar and is manufactured in Mount Royal, Quebec.
The shapes come in the original tenderoni, various pop culture icons, alphabet, numbers and spirals. Organic and whole-grain versions are also available, as well as a larger format box called "family size". The following flavours are available, as of 2024:
The product was marketed as Kraft Dinner with the slogan "a meal for four in nine minutes for an everyday price of 19 cents." It was re-branded to Kraft Macaroni & Cheese in the United States and other countries, although the word "Dinner" still appeared in small type on the U.S. version until the 2022 rebrand, and is referred to as the “Kraft Mac & Cheese Dinner” in the product webpage for the American variant. In several markets, it goes by different names; in the United Kingdom, it is also marketed as Cheesey Pasta.
The product is heavily promoted to children in the United States on television. When advertising to younger children, the television advertisement encourages the children to ask for "The Blue Box." In 2010, Kraft launched a $50 million multi-media marketing campaign with a nostalgia theme aimed at adults to promote all varieties of Kraft Dinner. In Canada, Kraft has advertising programs intended to make the meal appealing to newly arrived immigrant groups.
There are regular promotional tie-in versions of the Kraft Dinner aimed at kids. Packages have come with pasta in the shapes of various characters popular with children, such as Looney Tunes, Super Mario Bros., and Star Wars. Kraft Foods has also released many products under the product banner. These include other versions of macaroni and cheese with differently shaped pasta and different flavours, but it has also included completely different dishes, such as spaghetti, in several different flavours.
In promotion of the introduction of its "Cheddar Explosion" variety of Kraft Dinner, Kraft sponsored the demolition of Texas Stadium on April 11, 2010. In its last act of 2009, the Irving, Texas city council made Kraft Macaroni and Cheese the official sponsor of the demolition. Kraft paid $75,000 to local charities and donated another $75,000 in Kraft products. A national essay contest directed at children who "have made a difference in their community" was held with the winner allowed to push the button initiating the controlled demolition. The winning essayist was 11-year-old Casey Rogers of Terrell, Texas, founder of a charity serving the homeless.