Totino's

Last updated
Totinos
Product typeFrozen pizza and pizza products
Owner General Mills
CountryUnited States
Introduced1951;74 years ago (1951) (Totino's)
1968;57 years ago (1968) (Jeno's)
MarketsWorldwide
Previous owners Rose and Jim Totino (Totino's)
Jeno's Inc. (Jeno's)
Pillsbury Company
Website www.totinos.com

Totino's is a brand of frozen pizza products owned by General Mills, best known for their pizza rolls. Totino's was founded as a restaurant in the 1950s in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which expanded to frozen foods in the 1960s. They also operate the Jeno's brand.

Contents

History

Totino's pepperoni pizza Totino's brand pizza.jpg
Totino's pepperoni pizza

Jim Totino founded a take-out pizzeria in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on February 7, 1951. After customers regularly tried to eat in the store, they expanded to a full-service restaurant, [1] which relocated to Mound's View in 2008 before closing in 2011. [2]

Totino's expanded as a frozen-pizza manufacturing company in the 1960s, first selling frozen pastas out of their restaurant, then expanding to frozen pizza when they purchased a plant in St. Louis Park, Minnesota in 1961. [1] In 1970, they built a larger-capacity plant in Fridley. [1] The Totinos sold their frozen pizza business to the Pillsbury Company in 1975, where Rose Totino was named as vice-president. [3] After the acquisition, Rose Totino helped develop a new in-house crust and the brand grew nationwide. [1] By the 1970s, they were the top-selling frozen pizza in the United States. [4] Totino-Grace High School in Fridley was renamed after the brand's founders in 1980. [5]

Separately, Jeno Paulucci developed a series of food businesses starting in the late 1940s, including the Chun King line of Chinese foods. [6] After selling Chun King in 1966, he founded Jeno's Inc. in 1968, where cook and product developer Beatrice Ojakangas developed Pizza rolls, [7] [8] a type of egg roll filled with pizza ingredients. The first pizza roll flavor was cheese. [6] In 1985, Paulucci sold his Jeno's Pizza Rolls brand to Pillsbury for $135 million. [9]

Totino's pizza rolls Totino's Pizza Rolls, May 2019.jpg
Totino's pizza rolls

The Jeno's line of pizza rolls was rebranded as Totino's in 1993. [10] Totino's was acquired by General Mills with its purchase of Pillsbury in 2001. [1]

Health and nutrition issues

On November 1, 2007, Totino's and Jeno's brand pizza were recalled for E. coli contamination. [11]

Totino's products contain cheese substitutes made with hydrogenated oil. [12] Totino's products have been criticized for their high amount of trans fat [13] and sodium. [14] In 2011, Consumer Reports rated Totino's as "only fair for nutrition" because of "high total fat and trans fat and low fiber." [15] [16] Packaging on Totino's brand pizza now indicates 0 trans fats per serving. [17]

In pop culture

Saturday Night Live featured a popular series of ad parodies for Totino's Pizza Rolls in the 2010s, starring Vanessa Bayer. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

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References

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  2. "Totino's Italian Kitchen in Mounds View to close after 60 years". Pioneer Press. twincities.com. 7 June 2011. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
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  4. Huddleston Jr., Tom (May 2, 2020). "The history of frozen pizza—how a frozen food staple became a multibillion-dollar business". CNBC . Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  5. "History and Heritage". Totino-Grace High School. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  6. 1 2 Slotnik, Daniel E. (November 25, 2011). "Jeno Paulucci, a Pioneer of Ready-Made Ethnic Foods, Dies at 93". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-11-01.
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  8. Dean, Lee Svitak (October 9, 2016). "Adventure of a lifetime". Star Tribune . pp. E7. Retrieved March 1, 2024 via Newspapers.com.
  9. Finkelstein, Matt (2007-11-02). "The Master Chef". Inc.com. Retrieved 2019-11-01.
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  12. "Pizza Makers Whip Dairy Lobby, Duck 'Imitation Cheese'". Ocala Star-Banner . June 10, 1987. Retrieved October 31, 2012 via Google News.
  13. Rem, Kathryn (January 18, 2012). "Kathryn Rem: Investigating the contents of packaged foods  Trans Fats Have Not Gone Away". GateHouse News Service. Archived from the original on 20 Jan 2013. Retrieved 2019-11-01 via Journal Star.
  14. "Processed-Food Makers Criticized on Sodium". The New York Times. Associated Press. February 13, 1986. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-11-01.
  15. "Shop Smart: Frozen pizzas can satisfy even adults". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Consumer Reports. January 30, 2011. Archived from the original on 2019-11-01. Retrieved 2019-11-01.
  16. Perrin, Gail (November 30, 1988). "Frozen Pizzas May Be High in Fat". The Boston Globe . Archived from the original on January 21, 2013. Retrieved October 31, 2012.
  17. "Combination Party Pizza: Nutrition Facts". Totino's. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  18. Fox, Jesse David (February 4, 2019). "The Story Behind SNL's 'Totino's' Sketches". Good One Podcast. Vulture. Retrieved 31 January 2025.