How we make crisps
Updated: 29 November 2007
Crisps are one of the world’s favourite snacks, eaten by people of all ages and all classes.
Here's a quick guide to how they're made!
Step 1 - Potato selection
Our potatoes are a variety specifically for the crisp industry and purchased from Britain’s major potato growing areas.
Step 2 – Potato inspection
The potatoes are washed, peeled and inspected. Any sub-standard potatoes are removed at this stage.
Step 3 – Slicing
The thickness of the potato slice is a key factor in producing a crispy crisp, and the blades are changed hourly to ensure that they are always as sharp as possible. Once sliced, the perfectly sized potato pieces are washed free of starch ready for cooking.
Step 4 – Cooking
The potato slices are cooked as they move through a fryer containing pure vegetable oil. The precise heat of the oil and length of cooking time is vital to the texture and appearance of the cooked crisp. A golden blanket of crisps emerges from the fryer and is subjected to several quality checks.
Step 5 – Flavouring
Flavouring is a key area of expertise for Golden Wonder. Having shaken off excess oil, the crisps are passed through the flavour drum where they are sprinkled with flavouring and mixed thoroughly to ensure that the flavour is evenly distributed.
Step 6 – Packaging
Computerised packing lines are in operation at all of Golden Wonder’s factories. At the top of each machine are small weigh pans. A computer selects which combination of pans contains the ideal weight of product to be dropped down into the bags. The bags of crisps have a ‘best before’ date applied and are then packed into either multibags or boxes.
Step 7 – Distribution
As soon as the crisps are packed, they are put into lorries and driven to our customers: your local corner shop, leading national supermarkets, garages, pubs and so on.
And the whole process of turning potatoes into packets of crisps takes?…well, thanks to our advanced technology, just 12 minutes.
Now there’s food for thought.
