One Company Owns Hunt's Tomatoes, Slim Jim And Reddi-Wip. Do You Know Which One It Is?

It's common for various food brands to fall under the same parent umbrella — even if they make completely different products. For example, iconic soup brand Campbell's actually owns two pasta sauce companies: Rao's and Prego. And interestingly, disparate popular brands like Hunt's Tomatoes, Slim Jim, and Reddi-wip are also owned by a single parent company: Conagra Brand.

Conagra was officially established in 1919, when it was known as Nebraska Consolidated Mills before a name change in 1971. But it wasn't until the 1990s when the company acquired each of these popular brands. Conagra purchased Hunt's and two other food brands for $1.36 billion in 1990; one of those other brands was Beatrice Foods, which owned Reddi-wip, the popular whipped topping. Then, in 1998, Conagra bought GoodMark Foods, the owner of meat stick brand Slim Jim, for a stock swap (an exchange of shares between companies) worth $209 million. And it's through years of various other mergers and acquisitions deals, as well as its own product development, that Conagra has become one of the largest food parent companies in the world.

Yes, there are plenty of small-business products still on store shelves, but many ingredients and food products are owned by one of 10 major global food brands, including Nestlé and Unilever in addition to Conagra. Besides investing in tomatoes, whipped cream, and meat snacks, Conagra also owns popular titles like frozen vegetable brand Bird's Eye, frozen food staple Marie Callender's, and the syrup slinging Mrs. Butterworth's thanks to acquisitions made in the 2000s. But it started long before that.

As Conagra grew in the 1900s, it broke into various food industries. The company purchased Banquet in 1980, which was its first venture into frozen food. By 1988, Conagra had developed its own frozen food line, Healthy Choice, which is still available today. But the 1990s was arguably the biggest decade for the brand in terms of investments. It acquired at least 16 different brands through those years, including Orville Redenbacher's and Swiss Miss, along with another three brands — Chef Boyardee, mustard brand Gulden's, and Pam cooking spray in 2000 alone.

Although Conagra has continued to grow its portfolio overall, it has sold off numerous brands too. In 2006, the company sold its refrigerated meat brands, which included Butterball, Armour, Eckrich, Swissrose, and Louis Kemp, to Smithfield Foods for $571 million. Conagra's then-president, Gary Rodkin, told NBC that the sale reflected Conagra's commitment to simplify operations and concentrate on their strongest areas.