Made in Mass.: Cape Cod Potato Chips
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Cape Cod has many lures: sunshine, beaches, and quaint shops. One of the top attractions on the Cape is the Cape Cod Potato Chips factory in Hyannis. The company has operated at that site for more than 30 years and receives more than 250,000 visitors per year. Cape Cod Potato Chips employs about 100 workers in Hyannis. Pictured: The latest Cape Cod Potato Chips’ brand, Chef’s Recipe, in the company store.
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The company follows the growing cycle of the potato when purchasing spuds. This time of year, the company receives potatoes from a farm in North Carolina. Western Massachusetts and New York provide the potatoes in August and September. The Spudnik, left, potato unloader is the starting point for the chip production.
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Potatoes are taken from the truck onto a conveyor belt and are held in storage bins. Each bin contains one truckload of potatoes.
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The horizontal segmented peelers remove the skin of the potatoes before they are examined by James Webster, a pare and trim inspector. A “bad” potato could have bruises, an external green look, or are the wrong size. The optimal potatoes are around 4 inches.
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The peeler measures the potatoes into a particular batch size. Then, the potatoes are sliced at 257 revolutions per minute, or 20 miles per hour.
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Next, the conveyor brings the sliced potatoes into the kettle. Newell said all temperatures and time spent frying are automated to an extremely high temperature.
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The company has used canola oil for frying their chips since the company began.
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A close up of the potato chips sizzling in the kettle.
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The kettle-cooked chips travel on the conveyor line as they are cooled and salted.
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Two conveyors bring the product to five high-speed packaging machines.The bagged chips are both manually and automatically packed into the shipping boxes.
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If they are to become flavored chips, topical seasoning is added in the tumbler. In the photo, the barbecue-flavored chips are seasoned. The sea salt and vineagar chips have always been the company’s most popular seasoning, Newell said. “Traditional flavors like barbecue and sea salt have been around a long time and will be around a long time,” he said.
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The automatic machines package the chips into shipping boxes. The reduced fat chip is the company’s bestselling variety.
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Customers browse the company store after taking a tour. In the winter, the factory can receive about 50 visitors in a day, while in the summer, up to 3,000 people visit.The tours are free and include free samples and reduced prices on the chips.
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