The first food pyramid was created in Sweden and publicly introduced in 1974, and the well‑known U.S. “Food Guide Pyramid” version came later, in 1992.

Key dates

  • The concept and first visual food pyramid were developed in Sweden in the early 1970s and published for the public in 1974 in the Swedish cooperative magazine Vi.
  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) adopted its own Food Guide Pyramid much later, officially launching it in 1992 as a national nutrition education tool.

Quick context

  • The Swedish pyramid arose during a period of high food prices, as a way to show families how to eat nutritiously on a budget, with cheap “basic foods” at the base and more limited items at the top.
  • Over time, many countries adopted or adapted the pyramid idea, and in the U.S. it was eventually replaced by MyPyramid in 2005 and then by MyPlate in 2011.

TL;DR: Created in Sweden and first shown to the public in 1974; the famous U.S. version appeared in 1992.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.