The Ambrosia Creamery was founded in 1917 by Alfred Morris, in his home village
Lifton in Devon, to make rich food for infants. He took milk from local farms, where most of the cows were the
Red Ruby breed, and dried it with roller dryers. The term
ambrosia refers to an immortalising food of the
gods in Greek classicism. The product soon came to the attention of the British armed forces, who took significant quantities for its soldiers, still fighting in the
First World War. Just prior to the
Second World War, the Ambrosia creamery was the first company to start making creamed
rice pudding ready in a tin. Following the outbreak of war, the vast majority of production was placed in
Red Cross food parcels. After the end of hostilities, Ambrosia relaunched the product, along with a creamed
macaroni pudding. In 1957, following increasing demand, the creamery opened a new factory near to the original production facility. In 1990 the entire company was acquired by
Colman's Ltd., producer of a famous brand of
mustard. This, in turn, was bought out by
Unilever in 2001. Unilever sold the brand on in 2004, to
Premier Foods, where it is still a core brand, alongside others such as
Bisto, Oxo and
Sharwood's. In November 2018, Premier Foods announced that it was exploring the possible sale of the Ambrosia factory and brand in a move to focus on its growing brands, such as
Batchelors and
Mr Kipling, and to accelerate the rate at which it pays down its £510m debt. This sale offer was later withdrawn. ==Variations==