The Bumble Bee company began in 1899 when seven salmon canners in Astoria, Oregon, formed the Columbia River Packers Association (CRPA) under the leadership of Andrew B.

[3] In 1961, Castle & Cooke acquired CRPA by merger and changed the name of the company to Bumble Bee Seafoods after its most famous brand.

[3] Bumble Bee acquired parts of Westgate-California Corporation's tuna operations, based in San Diego, after the later company's collapse.

The management team, having paid off their leveraged debt before their 5-year goal, sold Bumble Bee to Pillsbury in 1988 contingent upon the president, Patrick Rose, and the management team staying on for five years,[4] Pillsbury in turn, following its December 1988, hostile takeover by Grand Metropolitan PLC, was forced to sell the brand the following year to the Thai company Unicord.

In August 2015, Bumble Bee Foods was sued, accused of colluding with Chicken of the Sea and StarKist to fix prices.

[8] In 2014, Puerto Rican celebrity chef, Doreen Colondres, became a brand ambassador for the company, hoping to appeal to Latin American audiences.

In 2010, the USDA announced a recall of Bumble Bee chicken salad products due to pieces of plastic found in packaging.

[13] On October 11, 2012, Jose Melena entered an industrial oven at the Santa Fe Springs, California, Bumble Bee plant, loading cans of tuna for sterilization.