Baking & Snack - November 2007 - 41

farther along the way, with the seasoning operations set
above the packaging stations. Doors keep these areas
separate, too.
With four lines now in operation, managers are quick
to point out empty bays already fitted with utility stubs
and knockouts for the fryer exhaust systems. These will
accommodate the next four lines.
BY THE LOT. Potatoes come to the Beloit plant by the tractor-trailer load. A Spudnik potato unloader at the three receiving docks pulls the potatoes out of the trailer and sends
them through an inspection station. Raw potatoes are scrutinized on receipt for variety, size and other attributes.
"When a new lot of potatoes arrives, we fry a sample
to judge its performance," said Mr. Carey. "Many of our
farmers 'lot out' their potatoes for us. In other words,
they track the lot from the field to the truck. When we go
to a different lot, then we'll test again. We also test when
using stored potatoes."
The plant receives truckload lots of potatoes daily,
holding them briefly in four large bins. "No potatoes are
put into long-term storage here," Mr. Carey continued.
"We process potatoes immediately on delivery."
From the large bins, potatoes move out through the
bottom via a water flume leading to a Lyco washer.
Scrubbed and screened to eliminate stones and other
field debris, the clean potatoes move up a conveyor to
the mezzanine where a scale routes measured quantities
of potatoes to each fryer line. A release gate drops the
potatoes down to the cook room.
The receiving dock also houses storage tanks for sunflower and safflower oils. These highly unsaturated fats
are held under a nitrogen blanket supplied by a BOC
Gases system to safeguard quality and taste. Two other
tanks in this area hold used cooking oils before they are
sent to PrairieFire BioFuels Cooperative for conversion
into biodiesel. The graywater wastewater treatment tank
is also located in this area.
FRY, SEASON, PACKAGE. Reaching the cook room on
the main floor, potatoes enter an auger that controls their
movement into the slicer at the head of each fryer line.
Slices are released as a batch into the fryer. Operators
control cooking conditions by raking the potato slices as
they fry in the hot oil.
The fryer releases its batch of finished potato chips all at
once onto a takeaway conveyor. Chips from the four fryers
converge, and all pass through a Key Technology Optyx
optical sorter. This eliminates any undesirably dark chips,
as well as fines and clumps. Chips continue into an FMC
FoodTech vertical bucket elevator that carries them to a
Heat and Control FastBack accumulating conveyor and
chip feeding system located on the mezzanine.

ᮡ Arranged along the roof line, 18 wind turbines return enough electrical
energy to partially offset plant usage. Windows provide "daylight" views.
Operation of the accumulator is controlled by computer to distribute chips to three packaging lines. Chips
pass through Heat and Control large-diameter tumbling
cylinders where they are dusted with salt, pepper and other
seasonings. The company installed a commercial-scale dishwasher on the mezzanine to clean the seasoning tumblers.
This saves water and avoids the mess of hosing off the tumblers on the deck. A quality assurance station to one side
allows operators to test for proper seasoning coverage.
The finished, flavored potato chips fall from the
seasoning tumblers into Yamato 16-head net-weighing
scales above Hayssen vertical form/fill/seal baggers.
Two of the three packaging lines are twin configuration
systems; the other is a single.
Packaging room operators load the bags filled with
chips into waiting delivery boxes, assembled by Combi
Packaging System case erectors located on the mezzanine
and dropped down to the packaging lines. Operators seal
the boxes and place them onto shipping pallets to build
loads. All chips are shipped immediately to the warehouse in Chicago for distribution. Four shipping docks
accommodate the tractor-trailer rigs. The dock area also
provides storage for film and cardboard supplies used by
packaging operations next door.
FROM SCRATCH. Kettle Foods drew its Beloit staff from
the local area. Few had any experience in food processing,
so careful recruitment and training were important. "We

November 2007 / BAKING & SNACK / 43

Baking & Snack - November 2007

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