A chip off the old block

By Trisha Marczak (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published 04:33 p.m., March 7, 2009

Who doesn’t love potato chips? They’re salty, crunchy, and come in just about every flavor imaginable.

But do you ever stop to think about where those chips, packed inside the flashy bag, come from?

The folks at Barrel O’ Fun in Perham do. In fact, they just can’t help it — chips are their lives.

Considering March 14 is National Potato Chip Day, it only seems fitting to pay tribune to the chip, and how it comes to be — from a tiny spud to a delicious anytime treat.

Available nationwide

Barrel O’ Fun chips can be found in supermarkets and shops throughout the nation and world, but the magic, for the most part, starts right here in the Red River Valley.

Potatoes, which are grown specifically for “chipping,” are transported from the fields to the Barrel O Fun factory in Perham. Every day, the factory takes in 10 semi loads of potatoes — a total of 480,000 pounds of potatoes.

In one month, the factory puts out 18 million bags a month, that’s 900,000 bags a day, 38,000 bags every hour and 650 bags a minute. With that, they use about 180,000 pounds of sunflower oil a week.

How do they do it?

The creation of the potato chip goes a little something like this: first, the semi trailer backs into a shape-fitted slot near the back of the factory, where all potatoes are sorted based on size — large potatoes stick together, to be used for kettle chips and bigger potato chip bags, and small potatoes are grouped to be used for smaller, fun size bags.

Once sorted, the potatoes take a ride on a conveyer belt, and are stored in their respective bins.

When their time comes to shine, they’re washed and dropped into, first a primary peeler, and then a secondary peeler — all of which are operator controlled.

All peels are collected and sent to local cattle farmers.

After peeled, the potatoes take another conveyer belt ride, where an operator inspects potatoes for defects. All defected potatoes are, too, sent to cattle farmers.

From there, potatoes head to the chopping block, where they’re sliced and diced into chip form. The chips’ thickness and texture is controlled by an operator, according to the type of chip being produced, whether it be ruffled, ridged, or plain.

From there, potatoes are washed, before entering the oil-filled cooker, where they sit for about two minutes. The next step is the salt station, where all chips are dusted with salt on their way to yet another inspection conveyer belt.

Inspectors watch chips for green spots or holes in the middle, and remove such chips to the best of their abilities.

Spicing it up a bit

At this point, the chips are almost ready for the bag. But before that time comes, they’re sent on over in a big tube to the packaging side of the factory, where they’re automatically transported to one of the many flavor stations. All in all, the factory produces 75 different potato chip flavors.

Each flavor station is set up so that chips are coated with seasoning, mixed around, to ensure the chip has been properly loaded with the tasty stuff, and dropped into a large scale. The scale sorts chips into a number of slots based on weights.

“They (computerized scales) are extremely accurate,” said plant manager Mike Bormann.

Ready for the bag

Measured chip bundles are dropped on down to the lower level packaging station, where they’re run through a metal detector, just in case, and are loaded into a bag. The machine then automatically seals the bag, and spits it out on the other end, where factory workers take over packaging the items into boxes.

From there, they’re shipped out to locations throughout the country, and eventually, wind up in someone’s stomach.

So on this upcoming National Potato Chip Day, before digging into a bag, take a second to appreciate all the people, time and effort that goes into the chip, from start to finish. Who knows, it may just make the chip taste that much better.

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