Quaker Oats gives Aunt Jemima a new name: Pearl Milling Company

NEW YORK – Aunt Jemima prepares her last batch of pancakes.

Quaker Oats said on Tuesday that its Aunt Jemima-branded pancake mix and syrup would be renamed the Pearl Milling Company. Aunt Jemima products will continue to be sold until June, when the packaging will officially change.

Quaker Oats, a division of PepsiCo Inc., announced last June that it would withdraw the Aunt Jemima brand, saying the character’s origins were “based on a racial stereotype.” Aunt Jemima’s smiley logo was inspired by the 19th century minstrel character “mammy”, a black woman content to serve her white masters. A former slave, Nancy Green, became the first face of pancakes in 1890.

Quaker Oats purchased the Aunt Jemima brand in 1925 and had updated the logo over the years in an effort to eliminate negative stereotypes. But in the cultural calculation that followed the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, Quaker decided to change the name altogether. Other brands, like Uncle Ben’s rice, followed.

Quaker said that the Pearl Milling Company was founded in 1888 in St. Joseph, Missouri, and was the originator of the self-rising pancake mix. While the brand will be new to store shelves, boxes and bottles of syrup will still have Aunt Jemima’s familiar red packaging.

Quaker said it sought feedback from customers, employees and external cultural experts when developing the new brand name.

Quaker said it is also donating $ 1 million to groups that empower black women and girls as part of the Pearl Milling Company rollout.