Elmer's created the first commercial cheese puff in the United States in 1939.
The product, known as the Chee-Wees, was developed by the Elmer Candy Corporation of New Orleans. It was made by extruding cornmeal into airy shapes and coating the pieces with cheese seasoning.
Cheese puffs belong to the broader category of extruded snacks. In this process, a corn-based mixture is forced through a die under heat and pressure; when it emerges, moisture rapidly expands and creates a porous texture.
The later popularity of Cheetos and other cheese snacks sometimes leads people to credit Frito-Lay with inventing the category. Frito-Lay helped popularize cheese-flavored corn snacks nationally, but Elmer's earlier Chee-Wees are commonly identified as the first commercial cheese puffs.