Totino's
American brand of frozen pizza From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Totino's is a brand of frozen pizza products owned by General Mills, best known for their pizza rolls. Totino's was founded as a restaurant in the 1950s in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which expanded to frozen foods in the 1960s. They also operate the Jeno's brand.
| |
| Product type | Frozen pizza and pizza products |
|---|---|
| Owner | General Mills |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1951 (Totino's) 1968 (Jeno's) |
| Markets | Worldwide |
| Previous owners | Rose and Jim Totino (Totino's) Jeno's Inc. (Jeno's) Pillsbury Company |
| Website | www |
History
Summarize
Perspective
Jim Totino founded a take-out pizzeria in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on February 7, 1951. After customers regularly tried to eat in the store, they expanded to a full-service restaurant,[1] which relocated to Mound's View in 2008 before closing in 2011.[2]
Totino's expanded as a frozen-pizza manufacturing company in the 1960s, first selling frozen pastas out of their restaurant, then expanding to frozen pizza when they purchased a plant in St. Louis Park, Minnesota in 1961.[1] In 1970, they built a larger-capacity plant in Fridley.[1] The Totinos sold their frozen pizza business to the Pillsbury Company in 1975, where Rose Totino was named as vice-president.[3] After the acquisition, Rose Totino helped develop a new in-house crust and the brand grew nationwide.[1] By the 1970s, they were the top-selling frozen pizza in the United States.[4] Totino-Grace High School in Fridley was renamed after the brand's founders in 1980.[5]
Separately, Jeno Paulucci developed a series of food businesses starting in the late 1940s, including the Chun King line of Chinese foods.[6] After selling Chun King in 1966, he founded Jeno's Inc. in 1968, where cook and product developer Beatrice Ojakangas developed pizza rolls,[7][8] a type of egg roll filled with pizza ingredients. The first pizza roll flavor was cheese.[6] In 1985, Paulucci sold his Jeno's Pizza Rolls brand to Pillsbury for $135 million.[9]
The Jeno's line of pizza rolls was rebranded as Totino's in 1993.[10] Totino's was acquired by General Mills with its purchase of Pillsbury in 2001.[1]
Health and nutrition issues
On November 1, 2007, Totino's and Jeno's brand pizza were recalled for E. coli contamination.[11]
Totino's products contain cheese substitutes made with hydrogenated oil.[12] Totino's products have been criticized for their high amount of trans fat[13] and sodium.[14] In 2011, Consumer Reports rated Totino's as "only fair for nutrition" because of "high total fat and trans fat and low fiber."[15] [16] Packaging on Totino's brand pizza now indicates 0 trans fats per serving.[17]
In pop culture
Saturday Night Live featured a popular series of ad parodies for Totino's Pizza Rolls in the 2010s, starring Vanessa Bayer.[18]
See also
References
External links
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