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Great Canadian Inventions

Probably best known for “eh?” and other communication standards, Canadians have also made global inroads with food-related breakthroughs.

1811 - The McIntosh apple was first cultivated by John McIntosh and has become one of Canada’s most recognizable produce forms.

1892 - The first electric range was invented by Thomas Ahearn and was used in the Windsor Hotel, Montreal.

1894 - The first packaged high-quality blended tea, developed to maintain a consistent taste from cup to cup, was Theodore Harding Estabrooks’ Red Rose. “Only in Canada? Pitty.”

1904 - John McLaughlin pioneered a mass-bottling technique that allowed his new Canada Dry Ginger Ale to be sold at public events. Sir Charles Saunders’ new type of wheat, called Marquis, matured 10 days earlier than Red Fife wheat - important for those early Prairie frosts.

1916 - J.L. Kraft patented processed cheese and entered the Canadian market in 1920 when he bought a Montreal cheese factory. Canadian Kraft cheese soon became a household staple.

1929 - Archibald Huntsman was the first to freeze and package fish to be sold en masse to the public. This was good news for High Liner Foods, a leader in fish products for over 100 years. Recently, High Liner reformulated all 86 products as trans-fat free.

1931 – The world’s first baby pablum was created by three doctors at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children - Dr. A. Brown, Dr. T. Drake and Dr. F. Tisdall.

1950s - The green garbage bag was conceived by Harry Wasyluk and Larry Hanson.

1974 - Baldur Stefansson developed canola cooking oil.

1990s - Food and dietary supplement manufacturer Ocean Nutrition Canada developed MEG-3, a fish oil extract of omega-3 that has since enriched numerous dairy and bread products.

1997 - The McFlurry was developed by a local independent McDonald’s franchisee in Bathurst, N.B. It is now sold in 90 countries around the world.

2006 - Watch for Concierge, a new electronic shopping system by Springboard Retail Networks.