The Jel Sert Company is a privately held company based in West Chicago,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Established in 1926, it specializes in making drink mixes, dessert mixes (

pudding Pudding is a type of food which can either be a dessert served after the main meal or a Savoury (dish), savoury (salty or sweet, and spicy) dish, served as part of the main meal. In the United States, ''pudding'' means a sweet, milk-based des ...

and

gelatin Gelatin or gelatine () is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also be referred to as hydrolyzed collagen, coll ...

), and frozen novelties.

History and Products

The Jel Sert Company was named after its original product, a

dessert mix, by combining the words ''jelly'' and ''dessert''. In 1929, Jel Sert created a powdered drink mix called Flavor Aid. These two products remained Jel Sert's flagship products until the 1960s when the company acquired Pop-Ice and its line of frozen ice pop desserts. Later that decade Jel Sert introduced Fla-Vor-Ice, another freezer pop, to complement its Flavor Aid drink mix line. Fla-Vor-Ice quickly became the leading freezer pop brand in the United States. Otter Pops were acquired by the company in 1996. Similar to Jel Sert's other freezer pops, the Otter Pop brand is perhaps the strongest on the United States' West Coast and features flavor-based characters such as Lil' Orphan Orange, Sir Isaac Lime, and Strawberry Short Kook. In 1999, the company signed a promotional deal with

General Mills General Mills, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded ultra-processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in ...

' Honey Nut Cheerios to promote its freezer bars. In 2000, Jel Sert acquired three other trademarks: Wyler's, a brand of powdered beverage mixes, and the Royal and My-T-Fine brands of puddings, pie fillings, and flan. In 2001 it bought Nabisco's gelatin, pudding and baking powder businesses, including Royal gelatin - one of the main competitors of

Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

Jell-O Jell-O (stylized in all caps) is an American brand offering a variety of powdered gelatin dessert (fruit-flavored gels/jellies), pudding, and no-bake cream pie mixes. The original gelatin dessert ( genericized as jello) is the signature of ...

. In 2012, Jel Sert acquired Super C, Pure Kick and Zoic from Solis Brands. It has also acquired

All Sport All Sport is a brand of sports drink. Although comparatively lacking popularity and brand recognition, its competitors include Gatorade and Powerade. History All Sport was launched by PepsiCo in 1994 as a competitor to The Coca-Cola Company� ...

in 2020. Jel Sert also sells alcoholic freezer pops. In 2021, Jel Sert partnered with

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

to launch

Powerade Powerade is a sports drink created in 1988 and distributed by the Coca-Cola Company. Its primary competitor is Gatorade, which is owned by PepsiCo since 2001. History Powerade was created by the Coca-Cola Company and first released in 1988. Th ...

freezer pops nationally. In 2024, Jel Sert and

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

collaborated to market

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

- and

Snickers Snickers (stylized in all caps) is a chocolate bar consisting of nougat topped with Caramel#Candy, caramel and peanuts, all encased in milk chocolate. The bars are made by the American company Mars Inc. The annual global sales of Snickers is ...

-flavored pudding and pie mix. The Jel Sert Company has done charity work with the American Childhood Cancer Organization, the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, and Operation Homefront.

References

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External links

Jel Sert

Jel Sert LinkedIn
Food and drink companies established in 1926 Snack food manufacturers of the United States Drink companies of the United States Food and drink companies based in Illinois Manufacturing companies based in Illinois Companies based in DuPage County, Illinois 1926 establishments in Illinois