Mass Production
Until the late 19th century, many physicians believed that most illnesses were related to digestion problems, and therefore recommended a daily intake of biscuits and fruit. Although an ideal solution for this problem, until this time fig rolls were still a locally made and hand-produced product.
The mass production of the fig roll was created in 1891 by Philadelphia baker and fig lover Charles Roser, who, in 1892, was awarded a patent for a machine which inserted fig creme into a cake-like dough: classical fig rolls are encased in a more pastry-like covering, creating a chewy experience. Naming his product Newtons after the local town of Newton, Massachusetts, he approached the Cambridgeport, Massachusetts based Kennedy Biscuit Company, who agreed to take on production and sales.
Kennedy Biscuit Company had recently become associated with the New York Biscuit Company, and after merger to form Nabisco, trade marked the product as the clearly named Fig Newton.
Now a trademarked product of Nabisco, the unusual shape of Fig Newtons is a characteristic that has been adopted by many competitors, such as the generic fig bars sold by most supermarkets, and Newman's Own Fig Newmans (an organic variety).
The Britannia Industries in India produces Fig Rolls.
Read more about this topic: Fig Roll
Famous quotes containing the words mass and/or production:
“The mass never comes up to the standard of its best member, but on the contrary degrades itself to a level with the lowest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
—Charles Darwin (1809–1882)