How Pop-Tarts Has Stayed Hot for Over 50 Years

Breakfast from the toaster? Still an appetizing idea

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Food technologist Bill Post devised a lot of unusual foodstuffs at the Kellogg's plant he supervised in Grand Rapids, Mich., and he also devised a great way of testing all of them. He brought the goods home for his kids to eat. The children didn't care for many of the prototypes, but one of them they liked a great deal. "Bring those fruit scones home, Dad," they said.

In 1964, "fruit scones" was just an in-house name for a flat, rectangular pastry with fruit filling that, following a successful test in the Cleveland market, became what it is today: Pop-Tarts, the 30-second breakfast ejected by your toaster.

Photo: Nick Ferrari

And that, said Barb Stuckey, chief innovation officer for food-development firm Mattson, was its marketing mojo.

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