KLIM is a brand of powdered milk under the Nestlé stable, acquired in 1998 from Borden, which is popular world-wide, particularly in Central America and is incorporated as a staple in Hispanic recipes in the United States. Its name comes from spelling "milk" backwards, and early ads featured the slogan "Spell it backwards."
KLIM was developed as a dehydrated whole milk powder for use in tropical regions, where ordinary milk tended to quickly spoil. It soon became a staple of scientific explorers, geologists, soldiers, and other jungle travelers who needed a lightweight dry ration that would keep for several days in high heat and humidity, even when decanted from its container.
In 1920 KLIM was a product of Merrell-Soule Company in Syracuse, New York[1] which in 1907 had improved the spray drying method patented by Robert Stauf in 1901 by starting with condensed milk instead of regular milk.[2] In 1927 Borden acquired the Merrell-Soule Company gaining the KLIM brand and None Such Mincemeats, both already made popular world-wide.[3]
During World War II, KLIM was initially adopted as part of the U.S. Army Jungle ration.[4] As one officer noted, "That quite dense milk powder kept safely for years if its stout can was unopened, and for at least a week in jungle heat if taken out and kept in a waterproof bag".[4] KLIM was later issued by the Red Cross to prisoners of war, particularly those held in German prison camps, in order to increase caloric intake. In the book Under The Wire , William Ash (pilot) and Brendan Foley tell how WWII prisoners of war removed the bottoms from the tins and hooked them together to form airtight pipes to provide air while digging escape tunnels.
According to renowned British author J. G. Ballard, KLIM was included in American relief supplies dropped over Shanghai, China, and the surrounding countryside following the Japanese surrender in August 1945. The cans of powdered milk, along with tinned SPAM, chocolate bars, and cartons of Lucky Strike cigarettes, are mentioned in Ballard's novel, Empire of the Sun, and his autobiography, Miracles of Life. As a teenager, the author was interned for two years and five months in the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center ([1]), a euphemistically-named prison camp that housed (according to Ballard) approximately 2000 British, Belgian and Dutch civilians, including 300 children, along with 30 American merchant seamen.
Mentioned in [http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_359_No_Time_To_Waste.mp3 an interview with William McDonough.
