50 million boxes were sold during the war. Also, consumers could receive, for one food ration stamp, two boxes. Its shelf life of ten months was attractive at a time when many Canadian homes did not have refrigerators. The timing of the product's launch had much to do with its success: during World War II, the rationing of milk and dairy products, an increased reliance on meatless meals, and more women working outside the home, created a large market for the product, which was considered a hearty meal for families. In 1937, Kraft introduced the product in the U.S.

Louis, Missouri, salesman, Grant Leslie of Dundee, Scotland, had the idea to sell macaroni pasta and cheese together as a package, so he began attaching grated cheese to boxes of pasta with a rubber band. Although James Lewis Kraft, of Fort Erie, Ontario, but living in Chicago, did not invent processed cheese, he won a patent for one processing method in 1916 and began to build his cheese business.

The prerequisite to a shelf-stable packaged macaroni and cheese product was the invention of processed cheese, where emulsifying salts help stabilize the product, giving it a longer life. The product is thus a simple-to-prepare, affordable, and meatless family dinner. The product is prepared by cooking the pasta and adding the cheese powder along with additional perishable and/or refrigerated ingredients such as butter (or margarine) and milk. The product's innovation, at the time of the Great Depression, was to conveniently market nonperishable dried macaroni noodles together with a processed cheese powder. The product by Kraft has developed into many flavour variations and formulations, including Easy Mac (a product that has since been renamed Macaroni & Cheese Dinner Cups), a single-serving product designed specifically for microwave ovens. Commercially, the line has evolved, with deluxe varieties marketed with liquid processed cheese, as well as microwavable frozen mac-and-cheese meals. There are now many similar products, including private label, of nonperishable boxed macaroni and cheese. The brand is popular with Canadians, who consume 55% more boxes per capita than Americans. It was introduced under the Kraft Dinner name simultaneously in both Canada and the U.S. It is made by Kraft Foods Group (or parent company Mondelez internationally) and traditionally cardboard-boxed with dried macaroni pasta and a packet of orange processed cheese powder. The product known as Kraft Dinner ( KD) in Canada, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese in the United States and Australia, and Cheesey Pasta in the United Kingdom and internationally is a nonperishable, packaged dry macaroni and cheese product. A bowl of original recipe (aka 'original flavour')

Kraft cheese for macaroni and cheese