Totino's and Jeno's are brands of frozen pizza products owned by General Mills.

History

Jim Totino founded a take-out pizzeria in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1951. It was expanded it to a full-service restaurant, which closed in 2011. Totinos founded a frozen-pizza manufacturing company. The Totinos sold their frozen pizza business to the Pillsbury Company, where Rose Totino was named as vice-president. Totino's brand was acquired by General Mills with its purchase of Pillsbury. Separately, Jeno Paulucci developed a series of food businesses starting in the late 1940s, including the Chun King line of Chinese foods. After selling Chun King in 1966, he founded Jeno's Inc. in 1968, where cook and product developer Beatrice Ojakangas developed Pizza Rolls, a type of egg roll filled with pizza ingredients. The first pizza roll flavor was cheese. In 1985, Paulucci sold his Jeno's Pizza Rolls brand to Pillsbury for $135 million. The Jeno's line of pizza rolls was rebranded as Totino's in 1993.

Health and nutrition issues

On November 1, 2007, Totino's and Jeno's brand pizza were recalled for E. coli contamination. Totino's products contain cheese substitutes made with hydrogenated oil. Totino's products have been criticized for their high amount of trans fat and sodium. In 2011, Consumer Reports rated Totino's as "only fair for nutrition" because of "high total fat and trans fat and low fiber." By at least October 2013, packaging on Totino's brand pizza now indicates 0 trans fat per serving.