Oreo: Little Known Facts | Mondelēz International, Inc. (2024)

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Oreo: Little Known Facts | Mondelēz International, Inc.? ›

Etymology. The origin of the name "Oreo" is unknown, but there are many hypotheses, including derivations from the French word or, meaning "gold", or from the Greek word ωραίο (oreo) meaning "nice" or "attractive". Others believe that the cookie was named Oreo simply because the name was short and easy to pronounce.

Etymology. The origin of the name "Oreo" is unknown, but there are many hypotheses, including derivations from the French word or, meaning "gold", or from the Greek word ωραίο (oreo) meaning "nice" or "attractive". Others believe that the cookie was named Oreo simply because the name was short and easy to pronounce.

Introduced: 1912

First introduced in the U.S. in 1912, Oreo has become the world's top selling cookie and is enjoyed in more than 100 countries. In markets around the world, Oreo comes in surprising local flavors, like blueberry and green tea ice cream, and fun shapes and forms.

OREO^® is America's favorite cookie, available in more than 100 countries around the globe. Over 60 billion OREO^® cookies are sold each year with more than 20 billion of those cookies sold in the U.S. annually. An estimated 500 billion OREO^® cookies have been sold since the first OREO^® biscuit was developed in 1912.

The limited edition wrapping makes a package of cookies look like a vehicle owner's manual, frozen vegetables, plain white t-shirts or a classic cookbook. That way, parents can slip sweets into the glove box, sock drawer, freezer or bookshelf and the kiddos will be none the wiser.

Since 1972, the primary color of the Oreo logo has been different shades of blue and white. Blue is a common color used to represent friendliness. An Oreo cookie is easily shareable by twisting the cookie top off and dividing the signature biscuit into two.

Upset with the Chicago-based company's efforts to diminish his brand's presence in the competitive cookie aisle, he filed an official complaint with the Federal Trade Commission in 2018 seeking $800 million in damages. Kassoff said he has yet to hear back from the agency.

The Mew Pokemon Oreo is the rarest of the batch, and I lucked out. I recently wrote about the new limited-edition Pokemon Oreos, and I was intrigued. They're regular Oreos, with different Pokemon characters embossed onto them.

An eBay search yields dozens of Mew Oreo cookies for sale, with prices listed everywhere from $50 to $10,000 to $100,000. Some listings promise a "mint condition" cookie; one claims the cookie was only handled with tongs, while others include photos showing the snack tucked safely in a plastic baggie.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012, marks a momentous occasion in history — Oreo cookie's birthday.

What was Oreo stolen from? ›

Oreo was created in 1912 as an imitation of Hydrox. Oreo eventually surpassed Hydrox in popularity, which resulted in the Hydrox cookies being perceived by many as an Oreo off-brand, despite the opposite being the case.

Several of the limbic brain regions, including the nucleus accumbens, the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the hypothalamus are highly responsible for food cravings. The nucleus accumbens is stimulated when eating sugary or fatty foods.

One problem: Kraft offered Chinese consumers the same type of Oreos that it sold in the U.S. Kraft believed that what was good for the U.S. was good for the world. After surveys showed that Chinese consumers found Oreos too sweet, Kraft put Andrade to work coming up with a new formula to better suit local tastes.

A long time ago, two brothers disliked each other.

Jacob and Joseph Loose ran two competing bakeries in Kansas City, Missouri. Jacob invented the Hydrox cookie. It was a chocolate cookie with vanilla creme filling. Joseph copied his brother and created Oreo, but he struggled to build a successful company.

Nabisco, the maker of Oreo (and a subsidiary of Mondelez Inc.), commands nearly 40% of the cookie market. Hydrox, meanwhile, was discontinued in 2003. It came back in 2015 thanks to Leaf Brands, a San Diego-based company that specializes in reheated nostalgia.

A circle topped with a two-bar cross is a Nabisco logo that stands for a European symbol of quality. Experts believe the design for the Nabisco symbol arose from the Cross of Lorraine, which was carried by the Knights Templar during the First Crusade in the 11th century.

There was just one problem. Oreos were made with lard. Under the Jewish dietary laws of kosher, pigs, the source of lard, are a forbidden food. Once Nabisco had removed the lard, mainly for health reasons, going kosher became possible.