| Nutritional value per serving | |
|---|---|
| Serving size | 2.5 oz. (70 g), about 1 cup prepared |
| Energy | 260 kcal (1,100 kJ) |
| Carbohydrates | 47 g 49 g prepared |
| Sugars | 6 g 7 g prepared |
| Dietary fiber | 1 g 1 g prepared |
| Fat | 3.5 g 19 g prepared |
| saturated | 1.5 g 4.5 g prepared |
| trans | 0 g 4 g prepared |
| Protein | 10 g 11 g prepared |
| Sodium | 580 mg (25%) |
| Sodium, prepared | 710 mg (29%) |
| Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. Source: Kraft Foods USA[1] |
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Kraft Dinner, known as Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in the United States and Macaroni Cheese in the United Kingdom, is a macaroni and cheese convenience food that requires minimal preparation by the consumer. The original product, a packaged dry macaroni and cheese mix, was introduced in 1937 by the company now known as Kraft Foods. It is now available in several other formulations.[2]
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In 1937, Kraft introduced the product in the U.S. and Canada.[3] The timing of the product's launch had much to do with its success. During World War II, rationing of milk and dairy products, and an increased reliance on meatless entrees, created a nearly captive market for the product, which was considered a hearty meal for families.
Kraft Dinner is seen as inexpensive, easy to make comfort food, with marketing to highlight its value and convenience.[4][5]
New product lines using different flavors and pasta shapes and increases to shelf life were introduced over the decades.
The product now comes in several compositions:
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner is also available in several varieties:
Spiral noodles
Kraft has also introduced a brand of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese flavored macaroni and cheese crackers, as well as a line of microwaveable Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner snack cups, in flavors like 'Original', 'Spicy Szechwan', 'Wild White Cheddar', 'Ultimate Alfredo' and 'Extreme Pizza'.
Kraft Dinner Smart (also known as KD Smart) is a sub-brand of the Kraft Dinner brand. It represents a line of Kraft Dinner macaroni & cheese products that contain no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives and have added ingredients like cauliflower, oats or flax seed blended into the noodles. It comes in 4 varieties[7] :
Kraft Dinner Smart originally 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 Mt. Royal, Quebec.
The platform re-launch was supported by a “Picky Eaters” advertising campaign, led by the TV spot entitled “The Negotiator”. The spot was based on insights derived from a national picky eating survey conducted by Vision Critical which found that[8] :
The product was originally marketed as Kraft Dinner with the slogan "a meal for four in nine minutes for an everyday price of 19 cents." It was renamed to Kraft Macaroni & Cheese in the United States and other countries. In several markets it goes by different names; in the United Kingdom it is marketed as Cheesey Pasta, while in Canada it retains its original name with the nickname KD.
The product is also heavily promoted toward children in the United States on television with the promotional name Kraft Cheese & Macaroni. 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.[9]
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 Super Mario Brothers, Pokémon, the Rugrats, The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Toy Story, Blue's Clues, SpongeBob SquarePants, and the Fairly OddParents.[4]
Kraft Foods has also released many products under the product banner. These include other versions of macaroni and cheese with different shaped pasta and different flavors, but it has also included completely different dishes, such as spaghetti in several different flavors.
In promotion of the introduction of its "Cheddar Explosion" variety of Kraft Dinner Kraft sponsored the demolition of Texas Stadium April 11, 2010. The New York-based public relations firm Hunter Public Relations, which has represented Kraft for 18 years as of 2011,[10] acted on behalf of Kraft. 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 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.[11] The winning essayist was 11 year old Casey Rogers of Terrell, Texas, founder of a charity serving the homeless.[12]
In Canada, Kraft Dinner has iconic status and is associated with young adults, in that it is an easy and inexpensive food for young people living away from home for the first time. It is often simply referred to by its initials K.D. One author noted that "in Canada it's the number-one-selling grocery item and an object of worship on par with hockey."[13] Pundit Rex Murphy has written 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." [14] Of the 7 million boxes of Kraft Dinner sold globally each week, Canadians purchased some 1.7 million of them.[15] Douglas Coupland has written 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], 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"[16]
Former Prime Minister Paul Martin regularly referred to it as his favourite food, though also confessed that he was unable to prepare it.[17] During the same election current Prime Minister Stephen Harper rebutted 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."[18]
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