Oxo (food)
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Types of Oxo cube
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| Product type | Food |
|---|---|
| Owner |
Premier Foods (United Kingdom) Mars, Incorporated (South Africa) Knorr (Canada) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1910 |
| Website | www |
Oxo is a brand of food products, including stock cubes, herbs and spices, dried gravy, and yeast extract. The original product was the beef stock cube, but Oxo now also markets chicken and other flavour cubes, e.g. Chinese Recipe and Indian Recipe. The cubes are broken up and used as flavouring in meals or gravy or dissolved into boiling water.
In the United Kingdom, the Oxo brand belongs to Premier Foods. In South Africa, the Oxo brand is owned and manufactured by Mars, Incorporated and in Canada is owned and manufactured by Knorr.
Oxo beef stock cubes contain: "Wheat Flour (with added Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Salt, Maize Starch, Yeast Extract, Flavour Enhancers (Monosodium Glutamate, Disodium Guanylate), Colour (Ammonia Caramel), Beef Fat (4.5%), Autolysed Yeast Extract, Dried Beef Bonestock, Flavourings, Sugar, Acidity Regulator (Lactic Acid), Onion Powder."
Oxo ham stock cubes contain: "Salt, Potato Starch, Dried Glucose Syrup, Flavourings (contain Barley, Wheat), Wheat Flour (with added Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Ham Bouillon Powder (4.5%) (Pork Bonestock, Yeast Extract, Salt, Whey Powder (Milk), Dried Onion, Sunflower Oil, Onion Extract, Parsley Extract, Celery Extract), Pork Fat (4.5%), Sugar, Ham Powder (2%) (Pork, Salt, Dextrose, Smoke Flavouring, Acidity Regulator (Sodium Ascorbate), Preservative (Sodium Nitrate)), Onion Powder, Dried Parsley, Smoke Flavouring."
The "Oxo Chicken stock cube" contains 2% chicken extract with the bulk of the flavour coming from MSG and yeast extract.
Concentrated meat extract was invented by Justus von Liebig around 1840 and commercialized by Liebig's Extract of Meat Company (Lemco) starting in 1866. The original product was a viscous liquid containing only meat extract and 4% salt. In 1899, the company introduced the trademark Oxo for a cheaper version; the origin of the name is unknown, but presumably comes from the word 'ox'. Since the cost of liquid Oxo remained beyond the reach of many families, the company launched a research project to develop a solid version that could be sold in cubes for a penny. After much research, the first Oxo cubes were produced in 1910 and further increased Oxo's popularity. During World War I 100 million OXO cubes were provided to the armed services, all of them individually hand-wrapped.
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Wikipedia