Armour Dinner Classics
Gone by 1995, recorded only in the gap between two SEC filings. Someone re-registered the Armour Classics name for frozen dinners in the 2000s and never shipped a single one.
Last verified Nov 7, 2026
Armour reached the premium frozen dinner two years before Le Menu, serving Salisbury steak on a microwave-to-table plate in 1980. The classy end of the freezer aisle got crowded fast.
Filed under: Frozen & Dairy · the ’80s
📅 Timeline
- 1979Sworn first-use date of December 28, 1979 for the Dinner Classics trademark.
- 1980Armour introduced Dinner Classics, per Supermarket News' 40th-anniversary industry timeline — two years ahead of Le Menu.
- 1983A Christian Science Monitor feature that April showed the premium line in full flight; ConAgra acquired Armour Food Company the same year.
- 1994Still on ConAgra's 'major frozen food brands' list — as Armour Classics — in the August 1994 annual report.
- 1995Silently gone from the August 1995 list, its slot taken by Marie Callender's. That gap is the only record of its death.
❓ People also ask
When was Armour Dinner Classics discontinued?
It was never announced. The line appears on ConAgra's major-brands list in August 1994 and is gone by August 1995; this site anchors the end at 1995.
What made Dinner Classics different from TV dinners?
Premium positioning — microwave-to-table plates and restaurant-style entrées, the upscale wave that Le Menu joined two years later.
Did the name ever come back?
Someone filed a fresh Armour Classics trademark for frozen dinners in the 2000s, but it was abandoned in 2006 with no product shipped. Armour on shelves today means canned meats.
🧾 Sources
- SEC EDGAR, ConAgra FY1994 Form 10-K (major frozen food brands list) (1994)
- SEC EDGAR, ConAgra FY1995 Form 10-K (Armour Classics absent) (1995)
- USPTO via Justia, ARMOUR CLASSICS re-registration, abandoned 2006 (no statement of use) (2006)
- Supermarket News, Supermarket News 40th-anniversary industry timeline (Dinner Classics, 1980) (1994)