Jif Peanut Butter Once Had A Much Different Name. This Is Why It Changed

There are a lot of misconceptions about the origin of peanut butter. For one thing, George Washington Carver didn't invent the nutty spread. However, Carver did discover more than 300 other uses for peanuts, earning him the title of "father of the peanut industry." The history of peanut butter actually dates back to indigenous peoples grinding peanuts into paste  — namely, the Incas and Aztecs. Peanut paste was later patented by Canadian Marcellus Gilmore Edson in 1884. A decade later, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (yes, that Kellogg) patented the process to make peanut butter using raw peanuts. You might assume this is where the household name "Jif" comes in, but Jif was a latecomer to the peanut butter brand race. 

Before it was Jif, it was a modest peanut butter brand by the name of Big Top, based in Lexington, Kentucky. The food conglomerate Procter & Gamble bought Big Top in 1955 to try to break into the peanut butter industry, but the company faced steep competition with the well-established national brands Peter Pan and Skippy, which had already been household names for decades. Peter Pan dates back to 1915 (though it went through a few different names under the parent company Swift & Co.), and Skippy came on the scene in 1932. To gain an edge in the market, Procter & Gamble rebranded Big Top Peanut Butter to Jif in 1958, hopping onto shelves donning a brightly-colored kangaroo mascot named Jifaroo. The name Jif doesn't appear to hold more significance other than being a simple, marketing-friendly word. Jif was first introduced as a "creamy-smooth" spread, with its crunchy version following soon after.

With a new name, Jif peanut butter also developed a new recipe, which included the use of non-peanut oils for partial hydrogenation. Jif also added molasses to the mix, which resulted in a smoother, sweeter, and more spreadable peanut butter. Consumers loved it. With time, and the successful slogan, "Choosy moms choose Jif," the brand eventually eclipsed both Peter Pan and Skippy to become the most popular name in peanut butter in the country by the 1980s. Today, the Jif factory in Lexington, Kentucky, is the largest peanut butter factory in the world.

But Jif's innovative formula caused quite a stir. With its non-peanut oils and added sweeteners, the FDA required it to be called "peanut spread" instead of true peanut butter. Jif wanted to earn its classification as a bona fide butter, so it managed to meet the FDA's demand that the product contain 90% peanuts while maintaining its super-spreadable texture. The brand's use of additional ingredients arguably opened the door for the array of peanut butter varieties on the market today. While Jif might not be the oldest peanut butter brand in the U.S., it made an impressive mark on the industry as the new kid on the block.