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How do they make shaped crisps?

I have just had a packet of transformers but I can't work out how they are made into shapes, the same goes for any shaped crisps. These are 30p a bag, out of that the shop keeper takes a cut, they have to pay for ingredients, packaging and all the rest but out of that 30p they still have enough to make every crisp into a specific shape. Its amazing. It wasnt too long ago space raiders were only 10p but for that they could still find the money to make all the crisps into alien heads. I thought that may be they naturally came out like that and the someone said 'hey they look like aliens, lets call them spaceraiders' but that clearly isnt the case with other spaced crisps.

Does anyone know the secret? what method could they possibly use to make them at such a low cost?
Reply 1
Avatar for jfinney94
jfinney94
9
Original post by Sternumator
I have just had a packet of transformers but I can't work out how they are made into shapes, the same goes for any shaped crisps. These are 30p a bag, out of that the shop keeper takes a cut, they have to pay for ingredients, packaging and all the rest but out of that 30p they still have enough to make every crisp into a specific shape. Its amazing. It wasnt too long ago space raiders were only 10p but for that they could still find the money to make all the crisps into alien heads. I thought that may be they naturally came out like that and the someone said 'hey they look like aliens, lets call them spaceraiders' but that clearly isnt the case with other spaced crisps.

Does anyone know the secret? what method could they possibly use to make them at such a low cost?


Cheap ingredients, mass production = crips that don't taste great. Example you can buy a pack of Walkers for 50p, doesn't actually mean thats how much they cost to produce, you are just paying more for a brand.
Reply 2
Avatar for cuckoo99
cuckoo99
13
Original post by jfinney94
Cheap ingredients, mass production = crips that don't taste great. Example you can buy a pack of Walkers for 50p, doesn't actually mean thats how much they cost to produce, you are just paying more for a brand.


indeed a pint of coca cola from a pub tap costs around 15p yet they sell it to you for like 2 quid nowadays.
Reply 3
Avatar for ddrrzzeerr
ddrrzzeerr
OP
17
Original post by jfinney94
Cheap ingredients, mass production = crips that don't taste great. Example you can buy a pack of Walkers for 50p, doesn't actually mean thats how much they cost to produce, you are just paying more for a brand.



Original post by cuckoo99
indeed a pint of coca cola from a pub tap costs around 15p yet they sell it to you for like 2 quid nowadays.


I know but it is understandable with walkers they get a load of potatoes slice them up and cook them. The same with coke, they get a load of chemicals, mix them up and then some one puts in a bit of fizzy water and there it is. The question is about how they can possibly shape them all at such a low cost, what production method do they use? If you mass produce Walkers you can just cook more at the same time and coke you can make a tank as big as you want but transformers they still have to go to the effort of taking every single crisp and making it the right shape. Which seems like a lot of effort givien how much a crisp is worth.

Haribo is the same. Look http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01851/Haribo13_1851196b.jpg A lot of effort must have gone into those. Do they have molds for the haribo to set in? You would need a lot of molds to produce them on a big scale. Its hard to imagine each individual heart or egg having the form bit made and then going through and having the gel bit put on but how else would they do it? I cant understand how they can go into that level of detail and them still be cheap.
Reply 4
Avatar for Dalimyr
Dalimyr
17
Original post by Sternumator
I know but it is understandable with walkers they get a load of potatoes slice them up and cook them. The same with coke, they get a load of chemicals, mix them up and then some one puts in a bit of fizzy water and there it is. The question is about how they can possibly shape them all at such a low cost, what production method do they use? If you mass produce Walkers you can just cook more at the same time and coke you can make a tank as big as you want but transformers they still have to go to the effort of taking every single crisp and making it the right shape. Which seems like a lot of effort givien how much a crisp is worth.
In fairly simple terms, think of it as using cheap/waste ingredients that are mixed together into a workable 'dough', which is run along a conveyor belt to a machine that cuts the dough to size and shapes the little dough balls in a mould before they go off to be fried. It might be a bit of effort, but particularly when they're made out of off-cuts and scraps of potato and stuff from their premium products then it's effort they're willing to go to because instead of having to pay for it to be thrown out (businesses must pay for waste disposal), they're turning the scraps into something that they can sell on to actually make them some more money.

Do they have molds for the haribo to set in?
Yes.

You would need a lot of molds to produce them on a big scale. Its hard to imagine each individual heart or egg having the form bit made and then going through and having the gel bit put on but how else would they do it? I cant understand how they can go into that level of detail and them still be cheap
I'm sure different factories will have different methods for making each particular sweet. To me the 'obvious' way for making Haribo-like sweets would be to have a tray of moulds run under a machine that'll pour the coloured jelly bit into the bottom of the mould, then under another machine that fills the moulds to the top with that squidgy white bit (or another coloured jelly for things like the rings), then the tray is run through something really cold so the sweets set quickly before they're dropped into a container ready to be put into a bag of mixed sweets.

There are programmes on TV that show how factories mass-produce all sorts of things, which can give you some insight into the processes involved. Even if you don't have the likes of Sky and only have Freeview, Quest regularly shows episodes of "How It's Made".

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