The company originally focused on the packaging and selling of ham, sausage and other pork, chicken, beef and lamb products to consumers, adding Spam in 1937.

George A. Hormel (born 1860 in Buffalo, New York) worked in a Chicago slaughterhouse before becoming a traveling wool and hide buyer.

Their partnership dissolved in 1891 as Hormel started his own meat packing operation in northeast Austin in a creamery building on the Cedar River.

[3][4][5] To make ends meet in those early days, Hormel continued to trade in hides, eggs, wool, and poultry.

[6]: 68  In the first decade of the 20th century distribution centers were opened in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth, San Antonio, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, and Birmingham.

[7] In 1921, when George's son Jay Hormel returned from service in World War I, he uncovered that assistant controller Cy Thomson had embezzled $1,187,000 from the company over the previous ten years.

He did so by arranging for more reliable capital management, by dismissing unproductive employees, and by continuing to develop new products,[9]: 90–103  reportedly with the mantra “Originate, don't imitate".

In 1959, Hormel was the first meatpacker to receive the Seal of Approval of the American Humane Society for its practice of anesthetizing animals before slaughter.

[25] Workers had already labored under a wage freeze and dangerous working conditions, leading to many cases of repetitive strain injury.

[36] Hormel spokeswoman Julie Henderson Craven, who responded to the PETA video, called the videotaped abuses "completely unacceptable.

"[37] In their 2007 Corporate Responsibility Report, Hormel Foods stated that all suppliers are expected to comply with several welfare programs to ensure that the hogs purchased are treated humanely.

The line was developed in concert with three parties, as "Hormel brought food formulation, packaging and shelf stability knowledge, (chef de cuisine) Ron DeSantis brought taste and texture expertise, and the Cancer Nutrition Consortium offered the nutritional framework.

[43] Four years earlier, the company had made an initial three-year commitment to deliver 1 million cans of this product to in-need families in Guatemala.

[44] Also in 2015, after an undercover investigation by a group known as Compassion Over Killing at an Austin, Minnesota processing plant, Hormel Foods announced it was "bringing humane handling officers to a Quality Pork Processors Incorporated facility to ensure compliance with its own animal welfare standards.

[53] In 2017, Mercy For Animals released undercover video footage of pigs being abused at The Maschhoffs LLC., a Hormel pork supplier in Hinton, Oklahoma, with piglets being castrated and having their tails cut off without any anesthetic, piglets left to suffer from untreated illness or injuries, and mother pigs crammed into gestation crates unable to move.

[56] In September 2019, Hormel Foods announced that they had achieved their non-renewable energy use reduction goal a year ahead of schedule.

[57] Also in September 2019, the company launched a vegetarian meat alternative called Happy Little Plants for foodservice and retail customers.

[60] On April 18, 2020, local health officials shut down a Hormel Foods plant in Rochelle, Illinois, that employed 800 people after at least 24 workers tested positive for coronavirus.

[62] Hormel also closed its Don Miguel Foods factory in Dallas, Texas, which is a joint venture with a Mexico City company, Herdez Del Fuerte.

Don Miguel manufactured fresh and frozen prepared foods, such as mini tacos, flautas, taquitos, empanadas, burritos and roller grill items.

[74] In 2021, MegaMex expanded their offerings to the wholesale food service industry by debuting their Tres Cocinas brand of pepper pastes.