Aunt Jemima rebranded as Pearl Milling Company

(Image credit: AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

published 10 February 2021

The Aunt Jemima brand has a new name: the Pearl Milling Company.

In June, Quaker Oats said it was giving the brand a new name and logo because "Aunt Jemima's origins are based on a racial stereotype." The Aunt Jemima image went through several iterations, and the original depiction was of a minstrel character. Products with the new name and logo will hit store shelves this summer.

In a statement released Tuesday, PepsiCo, the parent company of Quaker Oats, said the Pearl Milling Company was founded in 1888 in St. Joseph, Missouri, and "was the originator of the iconic self-rising pancake mix that would later become known as Aunt Jemima." Pearl Milling Company said in its own statement customers and employees helped decide the name, and it was "developed with inclusivity in mind."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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