Perhaps not everyone knows that the famous Irish writer George Bernard Shaw, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925, used to dine on Plasmon biscuits on the night of shows. The same biscuits were also British explorer Ernest Shackleton’s Christmas lunch on the 1902 Antarctic expedition!
A Made in Italy product, the Plasmon biscuit, which celebrated its 120th birthday in 2022. Generations of children (and not only!) in Italy and worldwide have grown up with these biscuits. Their main ingredient, a specific powdered milk of British origin, had the writer Mark Twain among its main promoters and investors.
The Italian Plasmon Syndicate
The history of the Plasmon biscuit began in our country in 1902 when Cesare Scotti, born in 1865, a Milanese nutritionist, food entrepreneur and doctor, founded the Italian Plasmon Syndicate in Milan to import a high-protein Anglo-German milk and albumin-based product (according to the original recipe, 1.3 kg of Plasmon required as much as 53 kg of milk), helpful in fighting child malnutrition. In 1904, Scotti acquired the patent and trademark, and in 1916, the Syndicate became the Plasmon Company, 100% Italian. During the First World War, every home with a child had a can of Plasmon.
Baby food
It was only in 1932, however, that the company’s first factory was built in Milan, and in the 1960s, baby food with homogenised meat was born. The historic Plasmon plant in Latina was opened in 1969. Here, still today, more than 1.8 billion biscuits are produced every year and sold all over the world. The company, owned by the Kraft Group since 1963, was acquired in 2025 by the Italian multinational NewPrinces Group based in Reggio Emilia. Plasmon, which produces around 1.8 billion biscuits annually, has retained its historical headquarters, employs hundreds of staff, and has a turnover of millions of euros.
Congratulations to those who bring up children who have made and will make Italy great in the world!
Discover the stories of other Made in Italy companies that make quality biscuits.