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Fray Bentos (food brand)

April 11, 2024

The Fray Bentos food brand is associated with tinned processed meat products, originally corned beef and later meat pies. The brand has been sold in the United Kingdom, other European countries, and Australia. Created in the second half of the 19th century, the name is derived from the port of Fray Bentos in Uruguay where the products were originally processed and packaged until the 1960s. The brand is now owned in the UK by Baxters, which manufactures the product range in Scotland. Additionally, the Campbell Soup Company manufactures and sells Fray Bentos branded steak and kidney pies in Australia.

Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies, as sold in the UK in 2015.
The original Fray Bentos trade mark, 1881

Current position edit

The Fray Bentos brand is known for the manufacture and sale in the United Kingdom of a range of tinned meat pies such as steak and kidney and minced beef and onion.[1][2] Since 2011, the brand in the UK has been owned by Baxters, who manufacture Fray Bentos products at their site at Fochabers in Scotland.[3] In addition to meat pies, the range includes tinned meat puddings and tinned meatballs as well as microwaveable meat-based pasta and rice dishes.[4]

The sales of Fray Bentos products, once a staple in the UK and some European countries,[1] have declined in recent decades and, in 2011, it was reported that sales had been flat at around £30 million per year for the previous ten years.[5] Tinned meat products, including Fray Bentos, now have a down-market image. According to the Financial Times, Fray Bentos products "may engender sneers" but they also have a "cult following" in the UK.[5] Baxters describes Fray Bentos as "an iconic British brand".[4]

Campbell's Soup Company manufactures and sells steak and kidney pies in Australia under the Fray Bentos brand name.[6][7][8]

History edit

Liebig: 1873–1924 edit

 
Advertisement for Liebig's Extract of Meat Company, c. 1900

In 1865, Liebig's Extract of Meat Company was founded in Britain by German chemist Justus von Liebig. The company established a factory in Uruguay to manufacture a beef extract product that would later be sold under the name Oxo.[9] In 1873, the factory began manufacturing tinned corned beef, which was sold in Britain under the name Fray Bentos, the town in Uruguay where the factory was located.[9]

Fray Bentos was trademarked by Liebig in 1881 for the purpose of marketing glue and "extract of meat", although, in practice, it was used principally for marketing corned beef.[10] In fact, Fray Bentos became synonymous with corned beef.[10]

Fray Bentos corned beef was targeted at a working-class market.[1] The tins were also ideally suited as army rations as they weighed just one pound and were easily transportable.[9] With the outbreak of the Boer War, the company's profits were significantly boosted from supplying corned beef to the British Army in South Africa.[9] Fray Bentos corned beef was also supplied to the troops in World War I.[11] Its popularity was such that the term "Fray Bentos" was used as slang by soldiers to mean "good".[1] One of the early British tanks that fought at the Battle of Passchendaele was given the nickname "Fray Bentos",[12] because the men inside felt like tinned meat.[1]

Vestey: 1924–1968 edit

 
The tinned corned beef packaging plant at the Anglo factory in Fray Bentos

In 1924, Liebig Extract of Meat Company, together with the Fray Bentos brand, was acquired by the Vestey Group[13] which renamed the Uruguayan operation Frigorífico Anglo del Uruguay, also known as the "Anglo Meatpacking Company".[1]

Fray Bentos's peak was during World War II.[14] As a supplier of meat to the Allies,[14] Fray Bentos shipped more than 16 million cans of corned beef to Europe in 1943 alone.[15] British soldiers serving in North Africa during the desert campaign called it Desert Chicken. The Anglo factory in Fray Bentos, at its height, employed over 5,000 workers from more than 50 countries to process 400 cows an hour.[15] As a result of the demand for Fray Bentos products at this time the Uruguayan currency became more valuable than the US dollar.[15]

In the immediate post-war years, Fray Bentos products were a staple food in Britain.[5] The product range was expanded to include canned meat pies such as steak and kidney and minced beef and onion.[1][2] In 1958, Vestey began manufacturing Fray Bentos pies in England,[16] and production was moved to a plant in the London Borough of Hackney.[5]

In 1964, the use of the brand for corned beef was significantly damaged when an outbreak of typhoid in Aberdeen, in which three people died, was traced to a tin of Fray Bentos corned beef imported from South America.[10][17] The corned beef had been contaminated as a result of the cooling process during manufacture, in which the untreated water used had come, according to BBC News, "from a river into which an estimated 66 tonnes of human excrement and 250,000 gallons of urine entered every day".[18]

At the end of the 1960s, Vestey disposed of the Anglo factory to the Uruguayan government[19][note 1] and, in 1968, sold Liebig to Brooke Bond to form the merged manufacturing business of Brooke Bond Liebig.[23][24]

 
The Anglo plant in Fray Bentos

1968–2013 edit

Brooke Bond Liebig was acquired by Unilever in 1984.[16][23] In 1993, the Campbell Soup Company bought Fray Bentos from Unilever's Brooke Bond division.[25] The Hackney plant was closed in the same year and production moved to Campbell's own factory in King's Lynn.[25][26]

Campbell's subsequently transferred its rights to the brand in the UK to Premier Foods as part of the sale of Campbell's UK operations in 2006.[5] However, Campbell's continues to manufacture and sell steak and kidney pies in Australia under the Fray Bentos brand name.[6][7][8] Premier Foods closed the King's Lynn factory in 2007[27] and moved its Fray Bentos production to its factory in Long Sutton, Lincolnshire.[2]

In 2011, the Premier Foods canning division, including Fray Bentos, was bought by Princes Group, but, following an Office of Fair Trading investigation, Princes were required to immediately sell off Fray Bentos on competition grounds.[5][28] It was bought by Baxters, the current owners,[2] who announced that production would transfer to its site at Fochabers in Scotland.[11] The move was completed in 2013.[3]

Baxters since 2013 edit

Baxters extended the Fray Bentos range to include "deep fill" pies (discontinued by 2022) and microwaveable bowl products.[29] As a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns in the United Kingdom sales of canned goods experienced considerable growth, including Fray Bentos which increased sales by 29% in 2020.[30]

Notes edit

  1. ^ The Uruguayan government closed the factory down in 1979.[1] The Brazilian food manufacturer Marfrig re-opened the site in 2008 to produce corned beef, but without the rights to the Fray Bentos brand.[20][21] In 2015, the factory was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[22]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Uruguay serves up slice of history". BBC News. 28 October 2008.
  2. ^ a b c d "Fray Bentos acquired by Baxters". BBC News. 18 November 2011.
  3. ^ a b "Fray Bentos production starts at Baxters site". FoodManufacture.co.uk. 3 April 2013.
  4. ^ a b "Fray Bentos". Baxters.com.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Louise Lucas (31 July 2011). "Fray Bentos slice of history for sale". Financial Times.
  6. ^ a b . Cambell's Australia. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  7. ^ a b "The Grocery Guide – Online Directory of Australian Supermarket Suppliers". Retail World.
  8. ^ a b "Steak & Kidney Pie with Puff Pastry". Coles Online.
  9. ^ a b c d John Hartley (28 February 2015). Bully Beef and Biscuits: Food in the Great War. Pen and Sword. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-1-4738-5490-1.
  10. ^ a b c David Newton (1 May 2013). Trademarked: A History of Well-Known Brands, from Airtex to Wright's Coal Tar. History Press Limited. pp. 218–219. ISBN 978-0-7524-9612-2.
  11. ^ a b "Baxters Food Group acquires Fray Bentos". The Herald. Glasgow. 19 November 2011.
  12. ^ . The Telegraph. 6 October 2013. Archived from the original on 6 October 2013.
  13. ^ Will Kaufman; Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson (2005). Britain and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History : a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 1017. ISBN 978-1-85109-431-8.
  14. ^ a b Mark Rowe (17 September 2011). "Uruguay: Who made all the pies? Welcome to Fray Bentos". The Independent.
  15. ^ a b c "How a pie factory in South America is taking on the world". The Telegraph. 4 July 2015.
  16. ^ a b "Liebig Extract of Meat Co". Graces Guide.
  17. ^ "Famous British food scandals". The Telegraph. 14 August 2013.
  18. ^ "Typhoid left city 'under siege'". BBC News. 26 June 2008.
  19. ^ Will Kaufman; Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson (2005). Britain and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History : a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 1018. ISBN 978-1-85109-431-8.
  20. ^ "Brazilian group reopens Fray Bentos corned beef plant". MercoPress. 4 September 2008.
  21. ^ Tim Burford (9 January 2014). Uruguay. Bradt Travel Guides. p. 311. ISBN 978-1-84162-477-8.
  22. ^ "Why has a Fray Bentos factory been given World Heritage status?". The Telegraph. 6 July 2015.
  23. ^ a b William H. Brock (20 June 2002). Justus Von Liebig: The Chemical Gatekeeper. Cambridge University Press. p. 232. ISBN 978-0-521-52473-5.
  24. ^ Alan Davidson (11 August 2014). The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press. p. 507. ISBN 978-0-19-967733-7.
  25. ^ a b "Campbell buying British food concern from Unilever". The New York Times. 11 March 1993.
  26. ^ "Early day motion 1598". UK Parliament. 15 March 1993.
  27. ^ Harry Wallop (20 January 2007). "Premier in the soup over closure". The Telegraph.
  28. ^ "Go-ahead for Premier Foods disposal". Financial Times. 22 June 2011.
  29. ^ Riley, Lisa (26 January 2014). "Fray Bentos gets 'deep fill' range of meat pies". The Grocer. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  30. ^ Woolfson, Daniel (18 December 2020). "Canned goods: Top Products 2020". The Grocer. Retrieved 30 January 2022.

External links edit

  • Baxter's Fray Bentos web page
  • Campbell's Australia's Fray Bentos web page 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine

April 11, 2024
fray, bentos, food, brand, fray, bentos, food, brand, associated, with, tinned, processed, meat, products, originally, corned, beef, later, meat, pies, brand, been, sold, united, kingdom, other, european, countries, australia, created, second, half, 19th, cent. The Fray Bentos food brand is associated with tinned processed meat products originally corned beef and later meat pies The brand has been sold in the United Kingdom other European countries and Australia Created in the second half of the 19th century the name is derived from the port of Fray Bentos in Uruguay where the products were originally processed and packaged until the 1960s The brand is now owned in the UK by Baxters which manufactures the product range in Scotland Additionally the Campbell Soup Company manufactures and sells Fray Bentos branded steak and kidney pies in Australia Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies as sold in the UK in 2015 The original Fray Bentos trade mark 1881 Contents 1 Current position 2 History 2 1 Liebig 1873 1924 2 2 Vestey 1924 1968 2 3 1968 2013 2 4 Baxters since 2013 3 Notes 4 References 5 External linksCurrent position editThe Fray Bentos brand is known for the manufacture and sale in the United Kingdom of a range of tinned meat pies such as steak and kidney and minced beef and onion 1 2 Since 2011 the brand in the UK has been owned by Baxters who manufacture Fray Bentos products at their site at Fochabers in Scotland 3 In addition to meat pies the range includes tinned meat puddings and tinned meatballs as well as microwaveable meat based pasta and rice dishes 4 The sales of Fray Bentos products once a staple in the UK and some European countries 1 have declined in recent decades and in 2011 it was reported that sales had been flat at around 30 million per year for the previous ten years 5 Tinned meat products including Fray Bentos now have a down market image According to the Financial Times Fray Bentos products may engender sneers but they also have a cult following in the UK 5 Baxters describes Fray Bentos as an iconic British brand 4 Campbell s Soup Company manufactures and sells steak and kidney pies in Australia under the Fray Bentos brand name 6 7 8 History editLiebig 1873 1924 edit nbsp Advertisement for Liebig s Extract of Meat Company c 1900In 1865 Liebig s Extract of Meat Company was founded in Britain by German chemist Justus von Liebig The company established a factory in Uruguay to manufacture a beef extract product that would later be sold under the name Oxo 9 In 1873 the factory began manufacturing tinned corned beef which was sold in Britain under the name Fray Bentos the town in Uruguay where the factory was located 9 Fray Bentos was trademarked by Liebig in 1881 for the purpose of marketing glue and extract of meat although in practice it was used principally for marketing corned beef 10 In fact Fray Bentos became synonymous with corned beef 10 Fray Bentos corned beef was targeted at a working class market 1 The tins were also ideally suited as army rations as they weighed just one pound and were easily transportable 9 With the outbreak of the Boer War the company s profits were significantly boosted from supplying corned beef to the British Army in South Africa 9 Fray Bentos corned beef was also supplied to the troops in World War I 11 Its popularity was such that the term Fray Bentos was used as slang by soldiers to mean good 1 One of the early British tanks that fought at the Battle of Passchendaele was given the nickname Fray Bentos 12 because the men inside felt like tinned meat 1 Vestey 1924 1968 edit nbsp The tinned corned beef packaging plant at the Anglo factory in Fray BentosIn 1924 Liebig Extract of Meat Company together with the Fray Bentos brand was acquired by the Vestey Group 13 which renamed the Uruguayan operation Frigorifico Anglo del Uruguay also known as the Anglo Meatpacking Company 1 Fray Bentos s peak was during World War II 14 As a supplier of meat to the Allies 14 Fray Bentos shipped more than 16 million cans of corned beef to Europe in 1943 alone 15 British soldiers serving in North Africa during the desert campaign called it Desert Chicken The Anglo factory in Fray Bentos at its height employed over 5 000 workers from more than 50 countries to process 400 cows an hour 15 As a result of the demand for Fray Bentos products at this time the Uruguayan currency became more valuable than the US dollar 15 In the immediate post war years Fray Bentos products were a staple food in Britain 5 The product range was expanded to include canned meat pies such as steak and kidney and minced beef and onion 1 2 In 1958 Vestey began manufacturing Fray Bentos pies in England 16 and production was moved to a plant in the London Borough of Hackney 5 In 1964 the use of the brand for corned beef was significantly damaged when an outbreak of typhoid in Aberdeen in which three people died was traced to a tin of Fray Bentos corned beef imported from South America 10 17 The corned beef had been contaminated as a result of the cooling process during manufacture in which the untreated water used had come according to BBC News from a river into which an estimated 66 tonnes of human excrement and 250 000 gallons of urine entered every day 18 At the end of the 1960s Vestey disposed of the Anglo factory to the Uruguayan government 19 note 1 and in 1968 sold Liebig to Brooke Bond to form the merged manufacturing business of Brooke Bond Liebig 23 24 nbsp The Anglo plant in Fray Bentos1968 2013 edit Brooke Bond Liebig was acquired by Unilever in 1984 16 23 In 1993 the Campbell Soup Company bought Fray Bentos from Unilever s Brooke Bond division 25 The Hackney plant was closed in the same year and production moved to Campbell s own factory in King s Lynn 25 26 Campbell s subsequently transferred its rights to the brand in the UK to Premier Foods as part of the sale of Campbell s UK operations in 2006 5 However Campbell s continues to manufacture and sell steak and kidney pies in Australia under the Fray Bentos brand name 6 7 8 Premier Foods closed the King s Lynn factory in 2007 27 and moved its Fray Bentos production to its factory in Long Sutton Lincolnshire 2 In 2011 the Premier Foods canning division including Fray Bentos was bought by Princes Group but following an Office of Fair Trading investigation Princes were required to immediately sell off Fray Bentos on competition grounds 5 28 It was bought by Baxters the current owners 2 who announced that production would transfer to its site at Fochabers in Scotland 11 The move was completed in 2013 3 Baxters since 2013 edit Baxters extended the Fray Bentos range to include deep fill pies discontinued by 2022 and microwaveable bowl products 29 As a result of the COVID 19 lockdowns in the United Kingdom sales of canned goods experienced considerable growth including Fray Bentos which increased sales by 29 in 2020 30 Notes edit The Uruguayan government closed the factory down in 1979 1 The Brazilian food manufacturer Marfrig re opened the site in 2008 to produce corned beef but without the rights to the Fray Bentos brand 20 21 In 2015 the factory was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site 22 References edit a b c d e f g h Uruguay serves up slice of history BBC News 28 October 2008 a b c d Fray Bentos acquired by Baxters BBC News 18 November 2011 a b Fray Bentos production starts at Baxters site FoodManufacture co uk 3 April 2013 a b Fray Bentos Baxters com a b c d e f Louise Lucas 31 July 2011 Fray Bentos slice of history for sale Financial Times a b Fray Bentos Cambell s Australia Archived from the original on 8 December 2015 Retrieved 5 December 2015 a b The Grocery Guide Online Directory of Australian Supermarket Suppliers Retail World a b Steak amp Kidney Pie with Puff Pastry Coles Online a b c d John Hartley 28 February 2015 Bully Beef and Biscuits Food in the Great War Pen and Sword pp 86 87 ISBN 978 1 4738 5490 1 a b c David Newton 1 May 2013 Trademarked A History of Well Known Brands from Airtex to Wright s Coal Tar History Press Limited pp 218 219 ISBN 978 0 7524 9612 2 a b Baxters Food Group acquires Fray Bentos The Herald Glasgow 19 November 2011 WW1 The siege of Fray Bentos at the Battle of Passchendaele The Telegraph 6 October 2013 Archived from the original on 6 October 2013 Will Kaufman Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson 2005 Britain and the Americas Culture Politics and History a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia ABC CLIO p 1017 ISBN 978 1 85109 431 8 a b Mark Rowe 17 September 2011 Uruguay Who made all the pies Welcome to Fray Bentos The Independent a b c How a pie factory in South America is taking on the world The Telegraph 4 July 2015 a b Liebig Extract of Meat Co Graces Guide Famous British food scandals The Telegraph 14 August 2013 Typhoid left city under siege BBC News 26 June 2008 Will Kaufman Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson 2005 Britain and the Americas Culture Politics and History a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia ABC CLIO p 1018 ISBN 978 1 85109 431 8 Brazilian group reopens Fray Bentos corned beef plant MercoPress 4 September 2008 Tim Burford 9 January 2014 Uruguay Bradt Travel Guides p 311 ISBN 978 1 84162 477 8 Why has a Fray Bentos factory been given World Heritage status The Telegraph 6 July 2015 a b William H Brock 20 June 2002 Justus Von Liebig The Chemical Gatekeeper Cambridge University Press p 232 ISBN 978 0 521 52473 5 Alan Davidson 11 August 2014 The Oxford Companion to Food Oxford University Press p 507 ISBN 978 0 19 967733 7 a b Campbell buying British food concern from Unilever The New York Times 11 March 1993 Early day motion 1598 UK Parliament 15 March 1993 Harry Wallop 20 January 2007 Premier in the soup over closure The Telegraph Go ahead for Premier Foods disposal Financial Times 22 June 2011 Riley Lisa 26 January 2014 Fray Bentos gets deep fill range of meat pies The Grocer Retrieved 30 January 2022 Woolfson Daniel 18 December 2020 Canned goods Top Products 2020 The Grocer Retrieved 30 January 2022 External links editBaxter s Fray Bentos web page Campbell s Australia s Fray Bentos web page Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Fray Bentos food brand amp oldid 1213695239, wikipedia, wiki, book, 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