639 articles
Pepsi Globe
Pepsi Globe: the circular red, white, and blue emblem of Pepsi, descended from a 1951 bottle-cap logo, made the brand's primary mark in 1971, named around 1997, redesigned by Arnell Group in 2008 and revived with an internal wordmark in 2023.
PepsiCo
PepsiCo, also called the Pepsi company, is an American multinational food and beverage company formed in 1965 through the merger of Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay, and headquartered in Purchase, New York.
Pez
PEZ (PfeffErminZ) is an Austrian compressed peppermint candy created by Eduard Haas III in 1927, famous for its character-headed dispensers introduced in 1949 and made by PEZ AG (Traun) and PEZ Candy Inc. (Orange, Connecticut).
Pickling
Pickling is the preservation of food in vinegar or salt brine, producing sauerkraut, dill pickles, and torshi, one of the oldest preservation methods, dating to 2400 BC.
Pillsbury Doughboy
Pillsbury Doughboy, also Poppin' Fresh, is Pillsbury's dough mascot created by Rudy Perz at Leo Burnett in 1965, debuting November 7, 1965 in stop-motion; over 600 ads, 87% recognition, Macy's balloon since 2009, now owned by General Mills.
Pink slime
Pink slime is the pejorative name for lean finely textured beef (LFTB), ammonia-treated beef trimmings used as cheap ground beef filler; coined by USDA microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein in 2002, it sparked the 2012 ABC News controversy, BPI's collapse and $1.9 billion settled defamation suit, distinct from pink slime journalism.
Plastic wrap
Plastic wrap (cling film, Saran wrap): thin transparent plastic film in rolls that clings to food and containers to keep food fresh. Discovered as PVDC at Dow in 1933; now mostly LDPE; hard to recycle.
Pocky (ポッキー)
Pocky (ポッキー) is Ezaki Glico's chocolate-coated biscuit stick snack, launched in Japan in 1966 as the world's first stick-shaped chocolate confection, named for the pokkin biting sound, sold abroad as MIKADO, and a Guinness-record best-selling chocolate biscuit brand.
Polo (confectionery)
Polo is a ring-shaped mint brand, "the mint with the hole", launched by Rowntree's on 15 April 1948 and made since at Nestlé's York factory; variants include Original, Spearmint, Fruits, and Sugar Free mints approved by the Oral Health Foundation.
Polyglycerol polyricinoleate
Polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR, E 476, INS 476) is a synthetic water-in-oil food emulsifier made from polyglycerol and condensed castor oil fatty acids, used mainly to lower the yield stress of molten chocolate; EFSA set an ADI of 25 mg/kg bw per day in 2017.
Pop Rocks
Pop Rocks is the original popping candy brand, hard candy gasified with carbon dioxide at about 600 psi, invented in 1956 by General Foods chemist William A. Mitchell and sold since the mid-1970s, now owned by Zeta Espacial.
Pop-Tarts
Pop-Tarts: Kellogg's (now Kellanova) shelf-stable toaster pastry launched September 1964 in Cleveland in four unfrosted flavors, developed by Bill Post's team in about four months and named after the Pop Art movement.
Post Consumer Brands
Post Consumer Brands, Post Foods + MOM Brands merger (2015), Lakeville, Minnesota-based Post Holdings subsidiary making cereal (Honey Bunches of Oats, Pebbles, Malt-O-Meal), Peter Pan peanut butter, and Nutrish, 9Lives, Kibbles 'n Bits pet food; #3 in US RTE cereal.
Potassium sorbate
Potassium sorbate (E202, INS 202), the potassium salt of sorbic acid (C6H7KO2, CAS 24634-61-5), is a widely used preservative inhibiting yeasts and molds, effective at acidic pH, GRAS in the US and authorized in the EU.
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (प्रधानमंत्री गरीब कल्याण अन्न योजना)
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY, प्रधानमंत्री गरीब कल्याण अन्न योजना) is India's free food grain scheme under NFSA 2013: launched April 2020 as COVID relief giving 5 kg extra grain monthly to ~80 crore beneficiaries, renamed in 2023 for free NFSA distribution, and extended five years to December 2028 with ₹11.80 lakh crore outlay.
Pradhan Mantri Matri Vandana Yojana
Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is India's national maternity benefit scheme, launched 1 January 2017 under the NFSA 2013, paying ₹5,000 via DBT for a first child and ₹6,000 for a second girl child under Mission Shakti's PMMVY 2.0.
Preserved Food
Preserved food: treated to resist spoilage via drying, salting, fermentation, canning (Appert, 1795 prize), refrigeration, freeze-drying, and irradiation; water activity 0.85 pathogen cutoff.
Pretzel sticks
Pretzel sticks: straight-rod form of hard pretzel, extruded, lye-dipped (1.25% NaOH, 90-93°C), baked; Pennsylvania-centered US industry, $2.75B category, 1,240 mg sodium per 100 g.
Pringles
Pringles: American stackable saddle-shaped potato crisps in a tubular can, launched by Procter & Gamble in 1968. Inventors Baur, Liepa, Wolfe. Owned by Kellogg 2012, Kellanova, then Mars since December 2025. Over 160 flavors, sold in 140+ countries.
Processed Food
Processed food: any raw agricultural commodity altered by washing, heating, canning, freezing, packaging, and similar procedures; graded by the NOVA system into four groups, with ultra-processed foods (UPF) linked in cohort studies to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
Propitious Mango ice cream
Propitious Mango ice cream (Hong Qi Propitious) is a Chinese mango-shaped frozen dessert with a white chocolate shell and creamy mango filling that went viral on TikTok, sold in Asian supermarkets and later H-E-B.
Publix
Publix, formally Publix Super Markets, is an American supermarket chain founded by George W. Jenkins in 1930, headquartered in Lakeland, Florida, and the largest employee-owned company in the United States.
Pure Food and Drug Act
The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 (Wiley Act) was the first U.S. federal law banning interstate commerce in adulterated or misbranded foods, drinks, and drugs, signed by Theodore Roosevelt, enforced by the Bureau of Chemistry, and repealed by the 1938 FD&C Act.
Quaker Oats Company
The Quaker Oats Company, Chicago-based American food maker of Quaker oatmeal, Life cereal, Cap'n Crunch, and Quaker Chewy bars; trademark registered 1877, incorporated 1901, a wholly owned PepsiCo subsidiary since the 2001 merger.
Quality Street (confectionery)
Quality Street is a British assortment of wrapped chocolates and toffees launched in 1936 by Harold Mackintosh in Halifax, named after J.M. Barrie's play, made by Nestlé since 1988, famous for the Purple One, Green Triangle, and Christmas tins.
Quest Nutrition
Quest Nutrition, LLC is an El Segundo, California maker of high-protein, low-sugar protein bars, chips, cookies and shakes, acquired by Simply Good Foods in 2019 for $1.0 billion; Quest net sales grew from about $345 million to $863 million by fiscal 2025.
QuikTrip
QuikTrip (QT) is a privately held Tulsa, Oklahoma-based convenience store and gas station chain founded in 1958 by Burt Holmes and Chester Cadieux, operating over 1,250 stores in 23 states with QT Kitchens foodservice and Guaranteed Gasoline.
Ralphs
Ralphs (Ralphs Grocery Company) is an American supermarket chain founded in Los Angeles in 1873, now a Kroger division running about 185 Southern California stores.
Rancidification
Rancidification is the oxidation or hydrolysis of fats and oils that produces off-flavors. Covers oxidative, hydrolytic, and microbial rancidity, measurement methods (peroxide value, TBARS, Rancimat, ESR), and prevention with antioxidants and packaging.
Rande Gerber
Rande Gerber (born 1962) is an American entrepreneur and former model, founder of the Gerber Group nightlife company and co-founder, with George Clooney and Mike Meldman, of Casamigos Tequila, sold to Diageo in 2017 for up to $1 billion; married to Cindy Crawford.