Kettle Foods
Encyclopedia
Kettle Foods is an international manufacturer of potato chip
s, tortilla chip
s, and nut butter
s based in Salem, Oregon
, United States
, with a European and Middle East headquarters in Norwich
, United Kingdom
. As of 2006 they were the largest natural potato chip brand in the U.S. The company, founded in 1978 by Cameron Healy, has been owned by Diamond Foods since 2010.
, its current UK home.
In 1999, new packaging
for Kettle's tortilla chips, produced by Printpack Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia
, won a 1998 Top Packaging Award from the Flexible Packaging Association. The new packaging met Kettle's requirements for a "window in the bag, seals that would hold up when shipping at high altitudes, improved clarity, stiffness and barrier, as well as a film that wouldn't wrinkle" and also extended the shelf life
of the chips by 30%. The new bag was made from a 0.38 mil oriented polypropylene
, laminated to a 1.5 mil, five-layered coextrusion that included ethylene vinyl alcohol
, low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and a metallocene
-based polyethylene
, with a layer of LDPE as the laminant. Matte
-finished inks flexographically
printed on the outer layer gave the new bag a "paper look" consistent with Kettle's potato chip packaging.
In 2003, the company installed the largest solar array in the Pacific Northwest
to use more green energy at their Salem plant. In September 2007, the company opened its second US production facility in Beloit, Wisconsin
, lured there by $500,000 in state economic development money. Kettle built the first manufacturing plant to be awarded gold certification in the LEED
program from the United States Green Building Council
.
The company was sold in 2006 to a private equity group, Lion Capital LLP, for $280–320 million.
In October 2007, campaigns were launched on Facebook
calling for a boycott of Kettle Foods products following allegations that the company was attempting to dissuade workers at its Norwich
factory from joining trade union Unite. The company denies the claim but acknowledged that it has taken advice from Omega Training, a UK subsidiary of U.S. company The Burke Group
, specialists in union avoidance.
In August 2008, California Attorney General
Jerry Brown
announced a settlement with Kettle Foods,
the maker
of Cape Cod Potato Chips
, and Frito-Lay
,
for violating the state's Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act
; the state alleged back in 2005 that the potato chips from those companies failed to document that they contained high levels of acrylamide
, a carcinogen
. Kettle Foods paid $350,000 in civil penalties and costs and agreed to cut their potato chip's levels of acrylamide to 275 parts per billion by 2011, an 87% reduction.
Lion Capital put Kettle Foods up for sale in December 2009, with an asking price of around USD $700 million and in February 2010 sold it for $615 million to California-based Diamond Foods, which owns brands such as Pop Secret
. The sale was finalized in the following month.
Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and Sweden.
high monounsaturated
safflower
and/or sunflower
oil. The company has occasionally held contests to introduce new flavors. The 2006 contest winners were Tuscan Three Cheese and Buffalo Bleu; past contest winners include Cheddar Beer and Spicy Thai.
United StatesPotato Chips from the company's USA website
United Kingdom
Rest of Europe and the Middle East
Potato chip
Potato chips are thin slices of potato that are deep fried...
s, tortilla chip
Tortilla chip
A tortilla chip is a snack food made from corn tortillas, which are cut into wedges and then fried . Corn tortillas are made of corn, vegetable oil, salt and water. Although first mass-produced in Los Angeles in the late 1940s, tortilla chips are considered to be a Mexican food, known as tostados...
s, and nut butter
Nut butter
A nut butter is a spreadable foodstuff made by crushing nuts. The result has a high fat content and can be spread like true butter, but is otherwise unrelated...
s based in Salem, Oregon
Salem, Oregon
Salem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, with a European and Middle East headquarters in Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. As of 2006 they were the largest natural potato chip brand in the U.S. The company, founded in 1978 by Cameron Healy, has been owned by Diamond Foods since 2010.
History
The company was founded by Cameron Healy in 1978 as the N.S. Khalsa Company; it produced its first potato chips in 1982. In 1988, following a motorcycle trip taken by the company's founder and his son, Kettle Foods established a UK branch in a converted shoe factory in Norwich; the branch moved five years later to a newly-built factory on the outskirts of NorwichNorwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, its current UK home.
In 1999, new packaging
Food packaging
Food packaging is packaging for food. It requires protection, tampering resistance, and special physical, chemical, or biological needs. It also shows the product that is labeled to show any nutrition information on the food being consumed....
for Kettle's tortilla chips, produced by Printpack Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, won a 1998 Top Packaging Award from the Flexible Packaging Association. The new packaging met Kettle's requirements for a "window in the bag, seals that would hold up when shipping at high altitudes, improved clarity, stiffness and barrier, as well as a film that wouldn't wrinkle" and also extended the shelf life
Shelf life
Shelf life is the length of time that food, drink, medicine, chemicals, and many other perishable items are given before they are considered unsuitable for sale, use, or consumption...
of the chips by 30%. The new bag was made from a 0.38 mil oriented polypropylene
Polypropylene
Polypropylene , also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications including packaging, textiles , stationery, plastic parts and reusable containers of various types, laboratory equipment, loudspeakers, automotive components, and polymer banknotes...
, laminated to a 1.5 mil, five-layered coextrusion that included ethylene vinyl alcohol
EVOH
Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol, commonly abbreviated EVOH, is a formal copolymer of ethylene and vinyl alcohol. Because the latter monomer mainly exists as its tautomer acetaldehyde, the copolymer is prepared by polymerization of ethylene and vinyl acetate to give the ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer...
, low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and a metallocene
Metallocene
A metallocene is a compound typically consisting of two cyclopentadienyl anions bound to a metal center in the oxidation state II, with the resulting general formula 2M. Closely related to the metallocenes are the metallocene derivatives, e.g. titanocene dichloride, vanadocene dichloride...
-based polyethylene
Polyethylene
Polyethylene or polythene is the most widely used plastic, with an annual production of approximately 80 million metric tons...
, with a layer of LDPE as the laminant. Matte
Matte
Matte may refer to:In film:* Matte , filmmaking and video production technology* Matte painting, a process of creating sets used in film and video* Matte box, a camera accessory for controlling lens glare...
-finished inks flexographically
Flexography
Flexography is a form of printing process which utilizes a flexible relief plate. It is basically an updated version of letterpress that can be used for printing on almost any type of substrate including plastic, metallic films, cellophane, and paper...
printed on the outer layer gave the new bag a "paper look" consistent with Kettle's potato chip packaging.
In 2003, the company installed the largest solar array in the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
to use more green energy at their Salem plant. In September 2007, the company opened its second US production facility in Beloit, Wisconsin
Beloit, Wisconsin
Beloit is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. As of the 2010 census, Beloit had a population of 36,966. The greater Beloit area is home to more than 91,000 residents.-Claim to fame:...
, lured there by $500,000 in state economic development money. Kettle built the first manufacturing plant to be awarded gold certification in the LEED
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods....
program from the United States Green Building Council
United States Green Building Council
The U.S. Green Building Council , co-founded by Mike Italiano, David Gottfried and Rick Fedrizzi in 1993, is a non-profit trade organization that promotes sustainability in how buildings are designed, built, and operated...
.
The company was sold in 2006 to a private equity group, Lion Capital LLP, for $280–320 million.
In October 2007, campaigns were launched on Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
calling for a boycott of Kettle Foods products following allegations that the company was attempting to dissuade workers at its Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
factory from joining trade union Unite. The company denies the claim but acknowledged that it has taken advice from Omega Training, a UK subsidiary of U.S. company The Burke Group
The Burke Group
The Burke Group is a U.S.-based international management consultancy established in 1982 with headquarters in Los Angeles. The Burke Group describes itself as an "international leader" in guiding management during union recognition campaigns. TBG provides commercial services to private and public...
, specialists in union avoidance.
In August 2008, California Attorney General
California Attorney General
The California Attorney General is the State Attorney General of California. The officer's duty is to ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" The Attorney General carries out the responsibilities of the office through the California Department of Justice.The...
Jerry Brown
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...
announced a settlement with Kettle Foods,
the maker
Lance Inc.
Lance, Inc. is an American snack food company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.They manufacture snacks such as:*Captain's Wafers*Toastchee Crackers*Nekot cookies*Gold-N-Chees crackers*Cape Cod Potato Chips*Tom's Potato Chips*Archway Cookies...
of Cape Cod Potato Chips
Cape Cod Potato Chips
Cape Cod Potato Chips is a snack foods company most famously known for their brand of potato chips. The company is headquartered in Hyannis, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod...
, and Frito-Lay
Frito-Lay
Frito-Lay North America is the division of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets and sells corn chips, potato chips and other snack foods. The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips,...
,
for violating the state's Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act
California Proposition 65 (1986)
Proposition 65 is a California law passed by direct voter initiative in 1986 by a 63%-37% margin...
; the state alleged back in 2005 that the potato chips from those companies failed to document that they contained high levels of acrylamide
Acrylamide
Acrylamide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula C3H5NO. Its IUPAC name is prop-2-enamide. It is a white odourless crystalline solid, soluble in water, ethanol, ether, and chloroform. Acrylamide is incompatible with acids, bases, oxidizing agents, iron, and iron salts...
, a carcinogen
Carcinogen
A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes...
. Kettle Foods paid $350,000 in civil penalties and costs and agreed to cut their potato chip's levels of acrylamide to 275 parts per billion by 2011, an 87% reduction.
Lion Capital put Kettle Foods up for sale in December 2009, with an asking price of around USD $700 million and in February 2010 sold it for $615 million to California-based Diamond Foods, which owns brands such as Pop Secret
Pop Secret
Pop Secret is a brand of popcorn produced by Diamond Foods who bought it from General Mills in September 2008. It was launched to the public in 1984.Previously it was manufactured by Weaver Mills....
. The sale was finalized in the following month.
Outside of the US and UK
The Kettle Foods UK office also supports a network of independent distributors through which Kettle Foods' products are made available in the Middle East and in European countries outside of the UK, including; Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway,Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and Sweden.
Products
Kettle features all-natural products, with its best-known brand being their batch-cooked extra crunchy potato chips. Their potato chips are fried using expeller-pressedExpeller
Expeller pressing is a mechanical method for extracting oil from raw materials. The raw materials are squeezed under high pressure in a single step. When used for the extraction of food oils, typical raw materials are nuts, seeds and algae, which are supplied to the press in a continuous feed....
high monounsaturated
Monounsaturated fat
In biochemistry and nutrition, monounsaturated fats or MUFA are fatty acids that have one double bond in the fatty acid chain and all of the remainder of the carbon atoms in the chain are single-bonded...
safflower
Safflower
Safflower is a highly branched, herbaceous, thistle-like annual. It is commercially cultivated for vegetable oil extracted from the seeds. Plants are 30 to 150 cm tall with globular flower heads having yellow, orange or red flowers. Each branch will usually have from one to five flower heads...
and/or sunflower
Sunflower
Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...
oil. The company has occasionally held contests to introduce new flavors. The 2006 contest winners were Tuscan Three Cheese and Buffalo Bleu; past contest winners include Cheddar Beer and Spicy Thai.
Potato chip flavor examples
The following is a list of potato chip flavors sold by the company as of 2009. The list is illustrative of the types of flavors sold by the company and is not meant to be exhaustive or up-to-date.United StatesPotato Chips from the company's USA website
- Backyard Barbeque
- Buffalo BleuBlue cheeseBlue cheese is a general classification of cow's milk, sheep's milk, or goat's milk cheeses that have had cultures of the mold Penicillium added so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue, blue-gray or blue-green mold, and carries a distinct smell, either from that or...
(Krinkle Cut) - Cheddar Beer
- Classic Barbeque (Krinkle Cut)
- Death Valley ChipotleChipotleA chipotle , or chilpotle, which comes from the Nahuatl word chilpoktli meaning "smoked chili pepper" is a smoke-dried jalapeño that tends to be brown and shriveled. It is a chili used primarily in Mexican and Mexican-inspired cuisines, such as Mexican-American and Tex-Mex.Varieties of jalapeño...
- Dill and Sour Cream (Krinkle Cut)
- Honey DijonDijonDijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
- Island Jerk (Krinkle Cut)
- Jalapeño
- Lightly Salted
- Lightly Salted (Krinkle Cut)
- New York Cheddar with Herbs
- Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper (Krinkle Cut)
- Sea Salt and Vinegar
- Sour cream, onion, and chive
- Spicy Thai
- Sweet Onion
- Tuscan Three Cheese
- Unsalted
- Yogurt and Green Onion
- Zesty Ranch
United Kingdom
- Honey Barbecue
- Lightly Salted
- Mature Cheddar and Red Onion
- No Added Salt
- Red Thai Curry
- Sea Salt with Crushed Black Peppercorns
- Sea Salt and Balsamic Vinegar
- Smoky Barbecue
- Sour Cream and Chive
- Sweet Chilli
Rest of Europe and the Middle East
- Honey Barbecue
- Mature Cheddar and Red Onion
- Red Paprika
- Sea Salt
- Sea Salt and Balsamic Vinegar
- Sea Salt and Crushed Black Pepper
- Sea Salt, Rosemary & Garlic
- Sour Cream and Chive
External links
- Official website
- Kettle Foods Ltd, official European website
- Kettle Foods Ltd, official UK website