Green Junk Food?

I stumbled on a cool website about the greenest, good for the planet and for you food, I have ever seen: SunChips

Ok, I am guilty, I love to each chips and be a couch potato. SunChips are not potato based, but they are crunchy, salty snack food, that I eat to take some stress of the potato supply. Actually they are healthy and good for you.

What I didn’t know is that Frito-Lay the owners of SunChips has made the plant in Modesto, California that makes them one of the most earth friendly plants in the US. Frito-Lay takes energy conservation at the Casa Grande, AZ potato chip factory very seriously, compared to similar plants it used 90% less energy, by 2011 it will have less than 1% waste going to landfills.

They use solar power to run the plant in Modesto. Solar collectors heat the oils used to cook the chips and solar panels to make electricity to operate equipment. At all points in production efforts are made to conserve water. The costs of operating these plants have been such that it will be used as models for the other company plants across the country.

Frito-Lay is also making efforts in packaging, currently a 1/3 of the material in packaging is renewable, by 2010 it will also be 100% compostable/biodegradable.

This kind of change isn’t just good for the planet it is good business. The kind of thinking we need for today and tomorrow.

Kraig Geise - Senior Internet Analyst