The original Polly-O manufacturing company had been established in 1899, operating independently until it was acquired by Kraft Foods Inc. in 1986.

Kraft owned it until 2020, when it sold its natural cheese division to Groupe Lactalis.

Polly-O was started by Giuseppe Pollio in Brooklyn in 1899 and bought by Kraft Foods in 1986.

The Pollio company changed its name to Polly-O in the 1940s to due to the original name's similarity to the polio epidemic.

[2] Huffington Post calls the company's string cheese line "a work of art".