Ragú () is an American brand of sauces and condiments owned, in North America, by

Mizkan is a Japanese company that produces vinegars (including seasoned rice vinegars, balsamic vinegars, and wine vinegars), mustards, salad dressings, authentic East Asian sauces, nattō, and other food products. It is based in Handa, Aichi Pre ...

and in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Symington's, a private-label food manufacturer. The sister product to Ragú, known as Raguletto, is produced in

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

and

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Raguletto is sold in Oceania by Simplot and in Finland by GBFoods.

Overview

The Ragú brand was first sold in 1937 and in 2014 was the best selling U.S. brand of pasta sauce. Ragú was acquired by Chesebrough-Pond's, which later merged with

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

, before its sale to Mizkan. The Ragú pasta sauce line consists of smooth ''Old World Style'' sauces, ''Chunky'' sauces, bold ''Robusto!'' sauces, as well as organic and

light Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be visual perception, perceived by the human eye. Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400– ...

pasta sauces. While most well known for selling jarred

pasta Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an Leavening agent, unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or Eggs as food, eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Pasta was originally on ...

sauce, Ragú also purveys a

pizza Pizza is an Italian cuisine, Italian, specifically Neapolitan cuisine, Neapolitan, dish typically consisting of a flat base of Leavening agent, leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high t ...

sauce and an

Alfredo sauce Fettuccine Alfredo () is a pasta dish consisting of fettuccine tossed with butter and Parmesan, Parmesan cheese, which melt and Emulsion, emulsify to form a rich cheese sauce coating the pasta. Originating in Rome in the early 20th century, the ...

Spelling

The brand name Ragú is spelled with an

acute accent The acute accent (), , is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin alphabet, Latin, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic, and Greek alphabet, Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accen ...

, while the Italian word ''

ragù In Italian cuisine, ragù (; from French '' ragoût'') is a meat sauce commonly served with pasta. An Italian gastronomic society, Accademia Italiana della Cucina, documented several ragù recipes. The recipes' common characteristics are the pr ...

'' (an Italian sauce typically used for dressing pasta) is spelled with a

grave accent The grave accent () ( or ) is a diacritical mark used to varying degrees in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan and many other Western European languages as well as for a few unusual uses in English. It is also used in other ...

History

Ragú had its origins in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

, in 1937. Assunta Cantisano and her husband, Giovanni, founded the Ragu Packing Company in their home in Rochester, New York, in 1937, making spaghetti sauce in their basement and selling it on their front porch. They later expanded to an entire factory. In 1969, the Ragu name was sold to Chesebrough-Pond's, which in turn was acquired by Unilever in 1987. Unilever introduced the short-lived Chicken Tonight line of simmering sauces in the early 1990s under the Ragú brand. Mizkan purchased the brand in 2014. The facility in Rochester still manufactured products under the Cantisano name brand. Some of the original facility still exists and produces products for other labels (including Newman's Own) as private label foods. They also have a facility in Owensboro, Kentucky. The Cantisano family left to create Cantisano Foods (now LiDestri Foods) and invented the Francesco Rinaldi brand of pasta sauce. The quotations "As I got older, I got better" and "Ciao, Francesco Rinaldi" have gained popularity since their use in commercials for Francesco Rinaldi. In August 2020, Mizkan announced that it was removing Ragú from the Canadian market.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ragu Former Unilever brands Products introduced in 1937 Mizkan brands Pasta sauce brands