| Few food products are more quintessentially American than yellow processed cheese. But despite the name "American cheese," the method for making this shelf-stable dairy treat actually has its roots in Switzerland. In 1911, food scientists Walter Gerber and Fritz Stettler pioneered a new process to keep cheese from rapidly spoiling so it could be more easily sold in warmer environments. They shredded and melted down a Swiss cheese called Emmentaler, added sodium citrate as a preservative, and left the mixture to cool, resulting in the first processed cheese and a much longer shelf life. Around the same time in the U.S., Canadian American businessman James L. Kraft — founder of Kraft Foods — was working to solve that same food spoilage problem. Kraft created his own similar method, though it's unclear how much he knew about the work of his Swiss contemporaries. In place of Emmentaler, he used cheddar cheese, which he heated at 175 degrees while whisking continuously for 15 minutes, before adding emulsifying compounds and leaving the cheese to cool. In 1916, Kraft successfully obtained the first U.S. patent for making processed cheese. But it was 34 years until American cheese singles appeared in supermarkets. This was thanks to Kraft's brother Norman, who headed the company's research department and hoped to repurpose these large hunks of cheese as conveniently packaged slices. Testing began in 1935, and in 1950, Kraft De Luxe Slices debuted. They were an immediate hit, with Progressive Grocer reporting an increase in cheese sales up to 150%. | 
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