Embracing the Spuds

Interview with Shirley Hutner | Pictures as considerable

When Dieffenbach’s, a household-owned commerce that specializes in kettle-cooked potato chips, realized blemished potatoes were going to rupture, it noticed an different available in the market to embrace the injurious potatoes and flip them into gorgeous potato chips, serving to farmers and saving thousands and thousands of kilos of potatoes.

When and where did Dieffenbach’s construct as an organization?


In 1964, Tag Dieffenbach started making his personal potato chips on his kitchen stove in Berks County, Pennsylvania. His chips grew to change into very smartly liked by household and chums; a brief time later he built his personal kettle cookers, which the third generation of the Dieffenbach household stills makes use of lately. Because the commerce grew, Tag wanted higher fryers and expanded from his kitchen to a little plant in the storage.

The put did the premise for Uglies advance from?


When the corporate began, we’d customarily salvage potatoes that weren’t finest. They were aloof spacious potatoes, however they did no longer meet our requirements for a Dieffenbach’s-branded product. We as an different weak these potatoes to construct chips that we provided simplest in our factory retailer. Shoppers loved them, so we determined to construct the nationwide designate Uglies. They were launched on the Pennsylvania Farm Level to in 2017. The logo has taken off, and now we maintain saved over 3.4 million potatoes since then.

How attain USDA Grades and Requirements for Fruits and Vegetables maintain an influence on the invent industry?


Since 1945, the USDA Grades and Requirements for Fruits and Vegetables has outlined what is “finest invent” to the fruit, vegetable, and specialty-sever growers and consumers. Despite the indisputable truth that the requirements are voluntary, invent that doesn’t meet these requirements will get rejected. We’ve change into accustomed to awaiting our tomatoes to be perfectly spherical, our vegetables symmetrical, and our fruit unblemished. These expectations maintain driven up the expenses of invent and created the converse of food damage. Every 365 days, six billion kilos (26 p.c) of invent goes unharvested or unsold for elegant reasons. Noteworthy of the rejected invent goes unused and is plowed below on the farms or outcomes in landfills.

Is food damage increasing or cutting again?


While the construction of food damage appears to be increasing, patrons, producers, and retailers are changing into more attentive to the converse and are discovering creative systems to tackle this crisis.

The put attain the potatoes that construct Uglies advance from?


We rescue these potatoes at completely different phases of the availability chain—as a long way help because the farm the whole methodology to the doorsteps of a potato chip plant.

How does this serve farmers?


We are organising a marketplace for these unwanted potatoes and turning a obnoxious effort into a obvious, no longer simplest for the farmer however furthermore for the neighborhood and the planet.

Will you briefly purchase us through the job of making a potato chip?


We are in an area to use our identical production lines for Uglies as we attain for our completely different root vegetable chips. The potatoes advance in by design of truckload and are placed on a conveyor belt, where they are sorted, washed, and peeled. The potatoes are washed as soon as again after which sliced. The sliced potatoes spin into the kettle to be cooked and are then seasoned to perfection, bagged, and packed into a case.

What flavors attain you offer?


Popular Sea Salt, Barbecue, Buffalo Ranch, Salt and Vinegar, and Jalapeño.

What became the premise in the help of the packaging?


We desired to construct packaging that truly conveyed our designate, Uglies. The muse at the initiating became that we were the use of reject potatoes, which is where the thumbs down came from. But we took the note “rejected” off the packaging because some retailers belief we were the use of inedible potatoes. We desired to add moderately fun to our packaging, and that is how Sir Spudly came to be. Each gain has a determined version of Sir Spudly wearing some form of hat, take care of a cowboy hat or a prime hat.

The put are Uglies potato chips provided?


Uglies are provided at local grocery shops in Pennsylvania and on-line at Amazon and ugliessnacks.com.

What number of facilities attain it is possible you’ll also maintain?


Correct now, now we maintain two facilities—one in Womelsdorf and one a couple of miles down the dual carriageway in Bethel.

Does being in Pennsylvania divulge one of the crucial crucial choices the corporate makes?


We are in the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch bid where many snack food corporations started. We maintain got a range of sources in this bid for a household company to be a success.

What has been the patron response to Uglies potato chips?


We maintain got had a spacious response—patrons cherish the product. I became factual on the phone with a shopper the outdated day who talked about our barbecue seasoning became the ideal she ever tasted. Shoppers furthermore desire to know they are serving to to in the low cost of food damage and that we’re donating 10 p.c of our earnings to an area starvation-combating group.

What’s the closing design for Uglies?


Our design is with a purpose to present a market that is spacious ample with the Uglies designate that we don’t maintain to flip away any gruesome potatoes. While we saved 1.6 million kilos of potatoes in 2019 by myself, there are a long way too many more that went to rupture. Alongside with cutting again food damage, each and every potato we upcycle into a top payment product lets in us to donate to the local charity. We admire our patrons and favor to elevate them the ideal tasting chips in fresh and thrilling flavors whereas furthermore bringing moderately fun to their lives with our whimsical packaging.

For more data, focus on to ugliessnacks.com