Food Processing and Ethnic Diversity

Growth of Ethnic Food Processing

Until the meat-shipping trade in Lake Michigan began in the 1830s, most processed food was prepared for the local market. It was sold in open-air markets, often in ethnic enclave neighborhoods, or peddled door-to-door, either by the maker or by a third-party peddler. Such markets were established throughout the country; the Colombo market, for instance, was established by Italian immigrants in San Francisco in 1874. The California Fruit Canners Association grew directly from Colombo market vendors 25 years later, and in 1916 it began selling products nationally under the Del Monte brand name.

This changed quickly as the country spread out, populated by waves of immigrants who worked in food processing factories and moved west to settle the country. In some neighborhoods, door-to-door peddling and street vending continued as well, and in some places have become part of the local tradition. In Chicago, Mexican American street vendors sell elote, sweet corn with mayonnaise and grated cheese; in San Antonio, the “tamale ladies” sell tamales door-to-door around Christmas time; in New York City, [Page 899]Middle Easterners and Jewish vendors sell falafel from street carts; in Cincinnati, German Americans sell sausage balls and sauerkraut; and in Boston, Greeks sell gyros. The ethnic foods of immigrant communities have become distinct parts of cities’ identities.

Canned goods and other processed foods were vital supplies for westward-migrating families. In combination with the use of railroads to bring goods to distant domestic markets, food processing allowed for the growth of increasingly larger commercial farms. But the industry also served the country's new immigrant populations and increasingly diverse ethnic communities. Much as local butchers near Italian neighborhoods would prepare porchetta (a stuffed pork dish) for families to bring home and roast, companies began producing canned and jarred spaghetti sauces.

The availability of these prepared foods, originally aimed at the immigrant families already accustomed to them, led in turn to their popularization among other American families. German foods were popularized first; bratwursts and hot dogs produced by meat processors quickly became assimilated, alongside packaged sauerkraut, bottled beer, canned pickles, and vinegar. Even as turn-of-the century nutritionists tried to Americanize the eating habits of first- and second-generation American households, native-born Americans were rapidly adopting the new foods these immigrants had introduced.

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