Old El Paso is a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

Tex-Mex Tex-Mex cuisine (derived from the words ''Texas'' and ''Mexico'') is a regional American cuisine that originates from the culinary creations of Tejanos, Tejano people. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others in the Southwestern ...

-style foods from American food producer

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 ...

. These include

dinner Dinner usually refers to what is in many Western cultures the biggest and most formal meal of the day. Historically, the largest meal used to be eaten around noon, midday, and called dinner. Especially among the elite, it gradually migrated to ...

kits,

taco A taco (, , ) is a traditional Mexican cuisine, Mexican dish consisting of a small hand-sized corn tortilla, corn- or Flour tortilla, wheat-based tortilla topped with a Stuffing, filling. The tortilla is then folded around the filling and fing ...

s and tortillas, taco seasoning, sauces, condiments,

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

, and refried beans. Old El Paso products are marketed across the globe. The brand is owned by

. Pillsbury acquired it in 1995, when its then-parent company Grand Metropolitan bought Pet, Inc., which had itself taken over the brand in 1968 from the Mountain Pass Canning Company. The name is a reference to the city of

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

, and the historical "Old" period when Texas was a part of Mexico.

History and products

In 1917, the Mountain Pass Canning Company in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

was bought from a local in El Paso, Texas. The Old El Paso company originally started by selling canned tomatoes and pinto beans. By 1938, Old El Paso was registered as a trade mark. Old El Paso relocated to many locations around the United States, before finally settling in Texas in 1958. In 1969, Old El Paso became the first national brand to offer a full line of Mexican meals in supermarkets and the first to advertise Mexican cuisine in the United States. In the 1970s, American supermarkets created a Mexican food section in their stores for the first time, due to the influence of Old El Paso and other Mexican food products. Also in the '70s, Old El Paso introduced a taco dinner globally, where many international markets were unfamiliar with Mexican cuisine. In 2010, Old El Paso released products under the “Smart Fiesta” line, also known as “Healthy Fiesta” in some regions. This line features healthier alternatives for their traditional dinner kits. The Smart Fiesta dinner kits include hard and soft taco shells and tortillas made with whole grain, and fajita and taco seasoning with reduced sodium. In 2013, Old El Paso introduced their new frozen entrees line, only available in the United States. The product line features frozen ready-made burritos, quesadillas, enchiladas, and fajitas. The entrees are available in chicken, ground beef, or steak. There are no vegan or vegetarian options currently. In 2019, Old El Paso introduced a new shredded cheese line in partnership with Crystal Farms Dairy Company. Today, Old El Paso is sold in the United States, Canada, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, among other countries.

References

General Mills brands Tex-Mex cuisine Products introduced in 1938 {{food-product-stub