More than you ever wanted to know about potato chips

Would you believe I didn't go online for almost 24 hours straight? We went on this trip to the Utz potato chip factory and the Snyder's of Hanover pretzel factory yesterday. I thought the kids would enjoy it, but I had no idea how much. We got home and Caleb had to tell my parents in detail exactly how they make potato chips. And since now I know you're dying for this information as well, I shall share it.

First of all, did you know that the #1 producer of chipping potatoes is not Idaho? It's Pennsylvania. This particular type of potato is used for several reasons, the first being that it is easy to peel. They just throw a bunch of potatoes into this bin lined with sandpaper-like material and roll them around until the skins are scraped off. Then a machine sorts them into large and small. The small ones end up in those little snack-size bags.

The potatoes are dropped into a rapidly spinning cylinder lined with blades, which slice them into chips. Then they go through a bath to remove excess starch before they are baked. When they emerge from the oven, they are salted in precise amounts and then inspected. First they go through a machine with a photoelectric eye, which can recognize a dark chip and blows a puff of air at it to get rid of it. Then the chips are inspected by hand. Any bad chips are thrown away. From there, they go to packaging. If flavor is to be added, it goes on right before the chips hit the bag. Each bag is filled with a puff of nitrogen, which keeps the chips fresh 3-4 months longer than oxygen would. Then they are boxed and shipped out to your local store.

So there you have it - the story of the potato chip. Naturally, we got free samples. Plus, at the Snyder's factory we bought many many bags of many different kinds of chips and pretzels. Now if I can just keep myself from eating them all in one afternoon...