Why We Couldn't Get Enough Of Instant Pudding In The 1970s

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It's the 1970s. A mother just came home from her new office job, staring at an empty dinner table and hungry kids. There was no time to bake. Zero energy to make any kind of dessert from scratch. But with a box of instant pudding, whisked together with milk, she could plate a treat in just a couple of minutes to cheers. Cheap and convenient, instant pudding became indispensable. Yet within decades, it would nearly disappear. What happened?

Instant pudding exemplified the post-war food shift toward ultra-convenient food. Canned goods. TV dinners. Anything requiring less than 10 minutes to prepare became the gold standard for American pantries. Women were joining the workforce in growing numbers, and with the entire family either at work or at school for the whole day, families could no longer afford the time to cook meals from scratch. It was against this backdrop that boxed desserts like instant pudding found a big, grateful audience.

Just milk and a whisk, and five minutes later, your dessert is ready. Compared to the hours it would take to make a simple, ungarnished vanilla pudding from scratch, the gap in convenience between the two was enormous. That's how these pudding mixes made their way into people's pantries and eventually became a staple — finding one back then in someone's kitchen would be like finding a box of cereal. Today, though? That'd be considered a novelty.

After a brief resurgence in the 2000s, consumer preferences did a complete 180. From convenient food, people now actively search for everything fresh and natural. The very convenience that was once a big selling point for instant pudding became a liability as parents began to scrutinize, then promptly reject all the modified starches, artificial colors, and preservatives printed on every sachet. The decline was quiet and undramatic. In 2023, when UK supermarket Countdown discontinued Gregg's instant pudding, their spokesperson confirmed to The Spinoff that no customers complained about its removal. The silence was rather telling. Safe to say that at this point, instant pudding had faded thoroughly from collective memory.

That said, it hasn't entirely disappeared. You can still find boxes of instant pudding in most grocery stores, typically Jell-O-branded (yes, the gelatin brand also makes instant pudding). The flavor and prep haven't changed since the 70s, so feel free to whisk up a batch or two. Who knows? You might end up loving it and end up keeping a box or two in your pantry. Out of style they might be, but we know for sure grandma will approve!