The Great Utz Chip Trip (Factory Tour)

Why yes, this is another item that’s been on the to do list for years and is only now finally accomplished. The Utz Chip Trip Tour is literally in the same town (Hanover, PA) where Doug’s family lives, and somehow I never found time in nearly 20 years of visits to get there. Doug, of course, has been to the attraction, but he also toured the actual factory back in the 1970s when the state actually allowed groups of people inside working food production facilities.

The Utz Chip Trip is a self-guided tour with free admission. First, visitors see some informational and historical displays, and then walk down a corridor with windows that overlook the potato chip factory floor. Utz was founded in Hanover in 1921, at which time they churned out 50 pounds of chips an hour.  The production rooms today can process 13,000 pounds of chips an hour! Since potatoes are mostly water, 75% of the original potato weight is lost in the production process; 13,000 of chips started as 52,000 pounds of potatoes! Per hour! It only takes about 30 minutes to get from raw potato to a bagged chip.

Over the years Utz has acquired a number of other snack brands, and in 2020 they went public (ticker UTZ, of course). According to Wikipedia, they make one million pounds of chips and 900,000 pounds of pretzels every week; they also make lots of other snack items, like cheese doodles and tortilla chips.  I was surprised to learn that only 30% of their chips are flavored (or “seasoned”, as they called it) –– I would have expected it to be much higher.

Utz controls their entire distribution chain, and most of their chips arrive in stores within 24 hours of coming off the line. I had not really considered chips in a bag as being “fresh”, but then I looked at the ingredients and it’s truly just chips, oil, and salt, with no preservatives.

After the tour we took our 15% off coupon and drove a few blocks to the outlet store, where we purchased a ridiculous amount of snacks for $8.50. We’ll be having them for lunch and dinner, since there’s not really room in the van. (If you’re ever in the area and don’t have the same storage constraints as we do, you can get a ridiculously large barrel of Utz Cheese Balls for $3 at the Utz outlet.)

One final tidbit: Hanover is also home of Snyder’s of Hanover pretzels, and these two snack powerhouse are what give the town its nickname “Snacktown USA!”