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| Keystone Food Products Tour 6/8/2005 |
Keystone
Food Products has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1946,
when it
produced fava beans, pistachio nuts and pumpkin seeds in a small family
kitchen
in rural Easton, PA. The company now has an 180,000-sq-ft plant running
snack
foods at 24,000 lb/hr on 10 production lines. The plant runs more than
300
stock-keeping units in bag sizes ranging from 3/4- to 32-oz.
Our section enjoyed a lengthy tour
hosted by Bill Corriere, President of Keystone Foods.
I took several of Mr. Corriere’s comments to
heart. Paraphrasing, he said, “Don’t let
bean counters run your operation.
Engineers are the ones that get things done.
You have to be willing to take risks to
increase productivity. No one was ever
fired for doing that.”
We
got to pick hot pretzels off of a heating conveyor.
While we cooled the pretzels by switching
them from hand to hand, we were told that pretzels are actually coated
with a
caustic and the exterior is chemically burned to get the brown coating.
We followed organic nacho chips from
the mixing tank, extruding form, heating conveyor, and to the baking
oven. Then we were shown the automated
bagging
equipment that dropped product and a sequentially sealed the bag. The final boxing process was a combination of
manual and automated work. As we tried
to keep pace, Mr. Corriere explained the company’s plans for future
expansion
and automation, especially in this last area.
The section ended the day at Louise
Moore Park grilling hotdogs and hamburgers with all of the other picnic
gear. Dr. Merz wasn’t too bad at his first
try of
horseshoes. The weather was perfect and
company just as good.
Tom
Reilly
Bethlehem
Area
Manager
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