sig.biz/combibloc

Portrait
sig.biz/combibloc 03/03
The spice of success
The beginning of the revolution in our eating habits was marked by
an instant soup made by Julius Maggi from Switzerland. His soups, stock cubes and liquid
seasonings were the beginnings of what is nowadays known by all as convenience food.
Spiced up his life: Julius Maggi (1846–1912).
Flashback to the 1880s. It is a time of
rapid industrialisation. Every seventh
workplace is already in a factory. The old
farming society is pushed aside and traditional
ways of behaviour and values
are lost.
Unlike the farmers, factory workers
were no longer self-sufficient. They had
to buy their food at the market or in
shops. Nor did they have enough time to
prepare meals, cook and eat. Lunch breaks
were short and the journey home long.
Many people could not afford a balanced
diet. Swiss factory inspector Dr Fridolin
Schuler was one of the first to recognise
that many illnesses and the high rate of
infant mortality in the working classes
were caused by this inadequate nutrition.
He suggested the idea of creating a ‘food
for the people’ to solve this problem,
which should be made of pulses or
legumes. These are a cheap source of protein
but are highly nutritious and easy to
digest. He was commissioned by a Swiss
welfare organisation, the Gemeinnützige
Gesellschaft (SGG) to find an innovative
entrepreneur who would be prepared to
put this quick-to-prepare food on the
market. Schuler finally found him in the
person of Julius Maggi.
Dedicated to the pulse
Julius Michael Johannes Maggi was
born on 9 October 1846 in Frauenfeld,
Switzerland. He was the youngest of five
children, his father was an Italian immigrant
and his mother Swiss. His turbulent
childhood was characterised by frequent
moves from one school to another. After
leaving school in 1863, Maggi first did a
commercial apprenticeship in Basle,
Switzerland, then attended a school for
cavalry recruits.
From 1867 to 1869, Maggi worked at
a mill in Budapest, where he advanced to
the position of vice-director within two
years. At the age of 23, he took over management
of the Hammermühle mill in the
Kempttal valley from his father. He continuously
developed the company by
acquiring other mills in Zurich and
Schaffhausen.
In 1880, the SGG commissioned Julius
Maggi, whose roots were in Lombardy
(and whose name should therefore really
be pronounced “Ma-ji”), with developing
a nutritious and easily digestible ‘food for
the people’ with a lentil, pea or bean basis.
Maggi got to know Schuler and began to
experiment with flours made of legumes.
In the following years, both threw all
their efforts into the idea they shared of
improving the dietary situation of the
working classes in the long term – with
legumes.
By the end of 1884, they were ready.
The first industrially produced powdered
soup made of legumes went on sale. However,
it had little taste and was difficult to
digest. Small wonder that despite initial