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Spam agreed to buy Skippy last week in a deal that brings together two of America's most venerated lunchtime treats.
The $700 million acquisition by Hormel Foods allows the firm to expand what it calls its "non-meat protein" line while broadening its reach overseas, notably in China, where Skippy - sold under the name Four Seasons Treasure - is the top-selling brand. Hormel also gets the coveted peanutbutter.com url.
There's a Long Island connection, so hang with me.
Joseph Rosefield, a California food executive, invented modern peanut butter in 1923. There were already dozens of peanut butter brands by then, but they all suffered from the fact that the oil separated from what the industry calls the "grit" after manufacturing. Rosefield's patented improvement was to add vegetable shortening to the recipe, allowing the mix to be churned into a spread so smooth that the homogenization was guaranteed for a year.
Rosefield initially licensed the process to the makers of Peter Pan peanut butter, but he launched his own...