First it was Chun King, the canned Chinese food that became a mainstay in American cupboards in the postwar decades. Then it was the pizza roll, a hybrid of Italian and Chinese fast food that acquired similar status in the kitchen freezer. Jeno Paulucci, a food magnate, had a hand in both of those contributions to the American diet, founding the companies that produced them. He died at 93 on Thursday at his home in Duluth, Minn.

The cause was renal and coronary failure, his daughter, Gina, said. His wife, the former Lois Mae Trepanier, died on Nov. 20.

Mr. Paulucci was working as a wholesale grocer in Hibbing, Minn., in the late 1940s when he noticed a blossoming market for prepared Chinese food. “The food industry was missing the boat, allowing the restaurants to handle all the take-home business,” Mr. Paulucci told The New York Times in 1955.

So he borrowed $2,500 from a friend and used it to begin canning chow mein and selling it to retailers.