Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Cheese and food production, marketing |
Founded | 1953Plymouth, Wisconsin | in
Founder | Leonard Gentine and Joseph Sartori |
Headquarters | Plymouth, Wisconsin , |
Key people | Louie Gentine, CEO |
Products | Packaged food, Dairy products |
Revenue | Sales are over $1.8 billion annually |
Owner | The Gentine family |
Number of employees | 1,800 (2016 estimate) |
Website | www |
Sargento Foods Inc. is an American food producer best known for its cheese. It was founded in 1953 in Plymouth, Wisconsin by Leonard Gentine and Joseph Sartori. [1] [2] The company name is a combination of Sartori and Gentine, with an "o" added to make the name sound Italian, as the company specialized in Italian-style cheeses. [3] [4] Sargento is one of the largest privately held companies in the United States, [5] and is one of the country's largest retail cheese companies. [6] The company offers profit sharing, tuition reimbursement and benefits for its employees. [7] The company has been a sponsor in American motorsports for many years; [8] for example, it is prominently displayed on Road America raceway. [9] [10]
Sargento was the first company to sell pre-packaged sliced cheese (1953), to sell pre-packaged shredded cheeses (1958), [11] and the first to develop zippered packaging for its cheeses (2001). [12] [13] The company also produces and markets specialty cheeses, which it purveys on its website and in catalogs. [14] Additional products include sauces, snack cheeses and snack foods, and the company also manufactures custom cheese and food products for corporate clients. [14]
In early 2017, Sargento recalled seven cheeses for possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. [15]
Plymouth is a city in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States, along the Mullet River. The population was 8,932 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Sheboygan, Wisconsin metropolitan area. The city is located in the Town of Plymouth, but is politically independent. Plymouth was known as "Hub City" for its former role as a center of wooden wheelwrighting. It is now known as "The Cheese Capitol of the World" as it produces 40% of all the cheese consumed in the U.S. Mayor Don Pohlman was last re-elected in April 2018.
Sheboygan is a city in and the county seat of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 49,929 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Sheboygan metropolitan area, which has a population of 118,034. The city is located on the western shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Sheboygan River, about 50 miles north of Milwaukee and 64 mi (103 km) south of Green Bay.
Parmesan is an Italian hard, granular cheese produced from cow's milk and aged at least 12 months or, outside the European Union, a locally produced imitation.
Colby is a semihard orange cheese made from cow's milk. It is named after the city of Colby, Wisconsin, USA, where it was first developed in 1885 and quickly became popular.
Listeriosis is a bacterial infection most commonly caused by Listeria monocytogenes, although L. ivanovii and L. grayi have been reported in certain cases. Listeriosis can cause severe illness, including severe sepsis, meningitis, or encephalitis, sometimes resulting in lifelong harm and even death. Those at risk of severe illness are the elderly, fetuses, newborns and those who are immunocompromised. In pregnant women it may cause stillbirth or spontaneous abortion, and preterm birth is common. Listeriosis may cause mild, self-limiting gastroenteritis and fever in anyone.
Havarti or cream havarti is a semisoft Danish cow's milk cheese. It can be sliced, grilled, or melted.
Cheetos is a crunchy corn-cheese puff snack brand made by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. Fritos creator Charles Elmer Doolin invented Cheetos in 1948, and began national distribution in the United States. The initial success of Cheetos was a contributing factor to the merger between The Frito Company and H.W. Lay & Company in 1961 to form Frito-Lay. In 1965 Frito-Lay became a subsidiary of The Pepsi-Cola Company, forming PepsiCo, the current owner of the Cheetos brand.
State Trunk Highway 23 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The route is signed as a north–south route from Shullsburg to Wisconsin Dells and as an east–west route from Wisconsin Dells to Sheboygan. With the exception of freeway segments between Sheboygan Falls and Sheboygan, an expressway segment between Sheboygan Falls past Greenbush to Fond du Lac, a freeway concurrency with Interstate 39 (I-39), and an expressway segment concurrent with U.S. Highway 151 (US 151), the highway is generally either two-lane surface road or urban multilane arterial. WIS 23 provides access to several important Wisconsin destinations, such as the House on the Rock, the Wisconsin Dells area and various state parks.
Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk. During production, milk is usually acidified and either the enzymes of rennet or bacterial enzymes with similar activity are added to cause the casein to coagulate. The solid curds are then separated from the liquid whey and pressed into finished cheese. Some cheeses have aromatic molds on the rind, the outer layer, or throughout.
Walkers Snack Foods Limited, trading as Walkers, is a British snack food manufacturer mainly operating in the UK and Ireland. The company is best known for manufacturing potato crisps and other snack foods. In 2013, it held 56% of the British crisp market. Walkers was founded in 1948 in Leicester, England, by Henry Walker. The Walkers family sold the business in 1970 to American food producer, Standard Brands. In 1989, Walkers was acquired by PepsiCo, owners of US snack brand Frito-Lay.
Frito-Lay, Inc. is an American subsidiary of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets, and sells corn chips, potato chips, and other snack foods. The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips, Lay's and Ruffles potato chips, Rold Gold pretzels, and Walkers potato crisps. Each brand generated annual worldwide sales over $1 billion in 2009.
Butterkäse is a semi-soft, cow's milk cheese moderately popular in Germanic Europe, and occasionally seen in the rest of the cheese-eating world. Although primarily produced in Germany, some Butterkäse is produced in Wisconsin.
Vegan cheese is a category of non-dairy, plant-based cheese analogues. Vegan cheeses range from soft fresh cheeses to aged and cultured hard grateable cheeses like plant-based Parmesan. The defining characteristic of vegan cheese is the exclusion of all animal products.
The cheese cracker is a type of cracker prepared using cheese as a main ingredient. Additional common cracker ingredients are typically used, such as grain, flour, shortening, leavening, salt and various seasonings. The ingredients are formed into a dough, and the individual crackers are then prepared. Some cheese crackers are prepared using fermented dough. Cheese crackers are typically baked. Another method of preparing cheese crackers involves placing cheese atop warm crackers. Cheese crackers have been described as a "high-calorie snack", which is due to a higher fat content compared to other types of crackers.
Squares formerly known as Square and Square Crisps are a British brand of square-shaped crisps made by Walkers, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. They were originally made by The Smith's Snackfood Company.
Commercial cheesemaking in Wisconsin dates back to the nineteenth century. Early cheesemaking operations began on farmsteads in the Michigan and Wisconsin territories, with large-scale production starting in the mid-1800s. Wisconsin became the largest producer of cheese in the United States in the early 1900s, and in 2019 produced over 3.36 billion pounds of cheese in more than 600 varieties, accounting for 27% of all cheese made in the country that year.