Herr's Snack Factory Tour

On Tuesday Oct 19 we headed out to Nottingham, PA to visit the Herr's Snack Factory.The tour started with a quick movie in the theater followed by a walk through the factory where we were able to watch the production lines through large plate glass windows.

Herr's is still family owned and operated which makes a big difference in how their daily operations run from other factories. Herr's only produces items that are already sold, so if they finish their production run by Thursday - then the lines don't run on Friday. And production NEVER runs on Saturday or Sunday for ANY reason what so ever!

Herr's is big on recycling & being an environmentally friendly company so to that end they do some pretty smart things for the earth and themselves:

- The steam that comes from boiling the potato chips heats all the water in the facility and in the winter that same steam is redirected and used to also heat the buildings.

- The starch, which is a byproduct of the peeling process, is separated & sold to a local paper manufacturer for the use in fine papers.

- All the food products that don't meet Herr's standards on the production line is washed (of salt & flavorings), mashed, mixed with corn, haylage & potato peelings (which is known as the "Steer Party Mix") and fed to the cattle over at the Herr's Angus Farm.

- As I mentioned above they never make any snack that isn't already sold so there's no waste of unsold product.

- All the boxes that Herr's products ship in are required to be returned - in ANY condition. They reuse the boxes until they no longer can due to inherent breakdown (i.e. water damage, forklift accidents, truck smashing, etc...) and they're then recycled.

The highlight for the kids was, of course, the piping hot, fresh potato chip tasting. Chips will never taste so good again! It was also the quietest part of the tour. LOL

If you'd like to venture out to the Factory for a tour visit their website for more info: http://www.herrs.com/snackfactorytours.html