Multi-Purpose Food, created in the 1940s to feed starving people worldwide in the years following World War II, was manufactured by General Mills and both sold commercially, and distributed through charities. It wasn't intended to be a permanent solution to hunger; rather, it was meant as a stopgap until native forms of nourishment could be devised. (There were different formulas developed for Asian countries, India, South America and other places, each using local forms of vegetable protein.) Commercial sales only made up about 5% of MPF's market; the rest was given away.
Multi-Purpose Food was last manufactured in the late 1970s, by which time Meals For Millions (the charity set up to distribute it) were confident that enough progress had been made worldwide that MPF had served its purpose. The original formula was never patented, and was made available for free to anyone who asked. Unfortunately, neither Freedom From Hunger (the successor organization to Meals For Millions) nor Caltech (where Multi-Purpose Food was developed) retained this information in later years.
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