A Four'N Twenty Pie being eaten during an AFL match
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Product type | Meat Pie |
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Owner | Patties Foods |
Country | Australia |
Introduced | 1947 |
Markets | Australia, New Zealand, USA |
Website | pattiesfoods |
The Four'N Twenty meat pie, owned by parent company Patties Foods, was created in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia by LT. McClure in 1947. The meat pie is a very popular food product in Australia as strong demand for the pie saw production grow from 50 pies per day to 50,000 pies per hour (pph) in between the years of 1948 to 1998.
The pie's name is a reference to the nursery rhyme Sing a song of sixpence which includes the line "Four'n twenty blackbirds baked in a pie".Choice conducted a test of 50 processed foods for the level of trans fat they contained in which the pie was found to be within the top 10.
McClure took a sampling of his pies to the Royal Melbourne Agricultural Show where they proved very popular. Increasing demand for the pie caused McClure to eventually open a Melbourne bakery in a pavilion of the showgrounds, later moving to bigger premises in nearby Kensington several years later.
In 2003, the Four'N Twenty meat pie is Victoria's best selling meat pie. While not as iconic outside of Victoria, Four'N Twenty pies are still the most commonly available brand in hotboxes in service stations, corner stores and in the frozen foods section of supermarkets across the country.
In 2006, the Australian brand announced that the Four'N Twenty pie would be sold on the American market.
In 2014, a halal certified variation of the Four'N Twenty meat pie sparked social media complaints and calls for a boycott of the product.