Utz Chips (The Chip Trip)

I was happy to see that Utz offers a tour of their factory in Hanover, PA.  The tour is free, it’s self guided and there are no reservations required.  I can’t remember if we have this brand in Texas but we have been seeing it a lot in our travels north.

The factory opened at 9:30 and since both of us were taught that “if you’re on time, you are late”, we had to wait about 20 minutes for the doors to open.  But that turned out to be a good thing because we were able to see the trucks bringing in the potatoes for today’s production.

The doors opened promptly at 9:30 and I was disappointed to see a sign that said no cameras or video without permission. 

There was a very nice (talkative) woman that was trying to get the introductory video going.  She was never able to get it working so we moved along hoping it would be working by the time we finished the tour.  There was probably a lot of good information on the video but we never did get to see it.

The showroom floor had some interesting displays.  This is the “famous gold can.”

Apparently you would buy the can full of potato chips then return it for the factory to re-use.

The founders were Bill and Salie Utz.  In 1921 they began producing Hanover Home Brand Potato Chips in Hanover, PA, in their kitchen, cooking about 50 pounds of chips an hour.  They sold their fresh chips to small local grocers and markets.  In 1947 the name was changed to the Utz Potato Chip Company.

Today Utz is the largest independent, privately held snack brand in the US.  They produce over 3 million pounds of snacks per week (about half of which are potato chips).

We were ready to start our tour (The Chip Trip) and again came to a sign that said “no cameras or video without permission.”  So, I asked for permission.  I was told “Sure.  Take all the pictures you want.”  I’m glad I asked!

This facility is 600,000 square feet.  It was 50,000 square feet when it opened in 1975.  In 1982 it was expanded to 300,000.  In 1985 it was expanded again.  In 1987 the Tour Gallery was opened.  In 1997 the World Distribution Center was built at this same location.  There are many other plants around the country.

There are plenty of windows in the observation gallery that looked down on the production process.  There was a push-to-talk audio program that was supposed to guide us through every step.

I say “supposed to” because a few of the buttons didn’t work.

The potatoes are taken from the delivery trucks and are washed before going through the peeler.

Washed potatoes ready for peeling.

It takes 40 pounds of potatoes to make one pound of chips.

After being peeled they go to the slicer. 

Freshly peeled potatoes.  

This machine started acting up and whole, peeled, potatoes started flying out of the machine!  You can see several of them on the floor.

From the slicer directly into the fryer.  They are fried for 2 1/2 minutes at 340 degrees.

Slicing machine on the right.

4,000 pounds of potatoes per hour are fried.

From the slicing machine directly into the fryer.

The chips are fried in cottonseed oil then salt is applied.

The middle bin is full of salt.

Dark chips are not over fried, they lack the sugar content.  They are pulled off the line.

Dark chips are pulled out.

Chips cool while heading to packaging.

Chips cooling while moving up to the next level.

About 60 employees work in production and they change jobs every 30 minutes.

The chips travel around to different packaging stations.

Conveyor belt full of chips.

This machine was still being programmed for a “new item”.

Every box was being inspected.  They must have been having problems because there were a lot of packages removed.

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The potato peels are sold to pig farmers.  The raw potatoes that could not be used and the cooked potatoes that couldn’t be used (such as those packages rejected from the newly programmed machine) are sold to cattle farmers.

The tour ended at the warehouse with chips ready to be shipped out.

This is not a 24/7 operation.  Production ends by 4:00 pm and the workers start cleaning and disinfecting the machines.  The oil is cooled and checked for reuse.

I would highly recommend this tour.  Even with the video and some of the audio not working it didn’t distract from the fun of seeing the complete journey of a potato chip!

We did get a free sample after our tour.  Their motto is “If they were any fresher you’d have to pick you own."

There is an outlet store down the road a little ways.  So we headed over there.

 Outlet store in the 1947 plant.

1st modern day Utz plant built in 1949, 

expanded in 1953, 1956, and 1958.

We bought a few items.

I will say that I will never, ever be able to have the Butterfinger Covered Pretzels in my house again.  Yep - they are that good!

I didn't find a magnet to buy but if there was one - this factory tour is certainly magnet worthy!