Real Production - How To Make Crisps

1.Real Crisps continues to grow and due to popularity and success, another expansion was necessary and the company moved into its' current 65,000 squ.ft. factory at nearby Crumlin in mid 2005.

2. Crisping variety potatoes are grown specifically for real crisps within the UK and, after undergoing washing and pre-delivery quality checks, are packed into 1.4 tonne real crisps bags to be delivered by road trailer.

3. After unloading to the potato room, the process begins with a wash and de-stoning operation prior to the first manual inspection.

4. At this point, any bruised, discoloured or under or oversized potatoes are removed before the potatoes are transported into the cooking room for slicing and cooking.

5. Inspected potatoes are then conveyed to the cooking area. Batch weighing precedes slicing where thickness and shape are determined.

6. The batch of sliced potatoes is then conveyed at high speed into the fryer where they are cooked for approximately seven minutes.

7. Manual and mechanical agitation of the sliced potatoes takes place to prevent crisps sticking together. real crisps are cooked in pure sunflower oil.

8. The crisps discharging from a number of fryers are then conveyed to a central inspection station where any out of specification defects such as colour, size or shape are manually removed.

9. Real Crisps are available in a wide variety of flavours and flavouring equipment used ensures even and continuous flavour coverage.

10. Once the crisps have had the required flavour added, they are conveyed into a PLC controlled multi-head weighing machine where the pre-selected target weight is achieved.

11. The correct quantity of crisps is then gravity fed through an in-flight metal detector into a form, fill and seal bag-making machine.

12.Whilst the bag is being formed, all production traceability information such as best before end date, julienne code and packing line data is automatically printed on each bag.