The Once-Popular Canned Comfort Food We Rarely See People Eat These Days

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For many people in the U.S., canned foods are not just an affordable staple — they are also a taste of nostalgia. But not every popular canned food has stood the test of time. Chances are that if you grew up in the 20th century, there's at least one discontinued canned food you wish you could taste one last time. In many cases, it was something like Campbell's Pepper Pot Soup, a long-running product first introduced in 1899 and made with honeycomb-textured beef tripe, which simply fell out of fashion over time.

However, one canned food from the post-World War II era never disappeared entirely. It was simply overshadowed by more popular alternatives: canned macaroni and cheese.

While you can still find products like Chef Boyardee's version on some store shelves, canned macaroni and cheese could never overcome the popularity of its boxed competition. The most famous name associated with canned mac and cheese was Franco-American, a subsidiary of Campbell that kept its name after the soup giant first acquired it in 1915. It was a popular choice for mac and cheese in the '60s, '70s, and '80s and was even advertised by TV actress June Lockhart from "Lassie" and "Lost in Space." Campbell, however, discontinued the Franco-American brand in 2004. While many of its products, like SpaghettiOs, were folded into the Campbell brand, the mac and cheese was simply discontinued.

Despite never reaching the ubiquity of Kraft's blue box, Franco-American's canned version had a cult appeal. Fans still keep it alive on Facebook pages, where they trade copycat recipes and reminisce about its taste. A Change.org petition in 2019 even pushed for its comeback.

Old images and recipes suggest the product was quite different from the mac and cheese we make today. The noodles looked more like spaghetti or bucatini, and advertisements promoted it as an easy casserole base: simply pour it into a baking dish, top with breadcrumbs, and heat. Ads claimed it was made with real cheddar, cream, and butter, while ingredient labels from the '70s also listed Romano cheese, sugar, and paprika.

Still, not everyone remembers it fondly. On Reddit, some commenters recalled, "No one ate this if they could avoid it," and "That stuff is disgusting." So while nostalgia may leave some people wishing for the return of canned mac and cheese, others are content to leave it in the past.