pearl milling company

Aunt Jemima pancakes officially replaced in Canadian grocery stores with new brand

Aunt Jemima products have now officially been fully rebranded as promised a couple years back due to concerns over stereotypical imagery, but now it seems not everyone is satisfied with the change.

Controversy has swirled around brands such as Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben's, with major disagreements over whether the depictions represented in the branding are harmful stereotypes or even racist.

Now, Aunt Jemima products are appearing on shelves completely scrubbed of the image of a smiling Black woman's face that people came to associate with the brand, and the name Aunt Jemima is nowhere to be seen.

It's now Pearl Milling Company, with the imagery on the products reduced to a simple image of pancakes with syrup and butter. The name comes from the name of a small mill in Missouri that began producing the famous self-rising pancake mix back in 1889.

Quaker Oats, which produces Pearl Milling products at Trenton and Peterborough plants, announced in 2020 they'd be retiring the brand, with plans to remove the former imagery by the end of that year.

They also introduced the P.E.A.R.L. Pledge community impact initiative awarding hundreds of thousands in grants to nonprofits championing the empowerment and success of Black women.

Some people disagree with the concept that the brand/imagery was ever racist or stereotypical at all.

Others simply say the brand is boring now and it's been tainted by controversy, so people just don't seem that interested in buying it anymore.

Either way, there are more high quality local maple syrups you can buy that taste a whole lot better, but if you're dashing to the corner store for a quick syrup run before brunch, Pearl Milling might be what you end up with regardless of how you feel about the changes.

Lead photo by

Mike Mozart


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