Snackers Corn Chips; Made in Belize
We end tonight’s newscast with a story on the latest made-in-Belize snack to hit the local market. Snackers corn chips is being produced by Bowen and Bowen inside their Ladyville facility. It comes in a number of flavors, from natural cheese, to zesty ranch, lightly salted and spicy habañero. As of today, Snackers Corn Chips are only available in three districts, but the company intends to sell countrywide following the Easter holidays. News Five’s Paul Lopez visited the production facility to find out more about Snackers. Here is that report.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
A new line of snacks has been introduced into the local market. Snackers corn chips is Bowen and Bowen’s latest production. The flavorful chips are made from locally produced corn and the final products are free of preservatives. Today, we took a tour through Bowen and Bowen’s state-of-the-art production facility in Ladyville to find out how they make theirchips. Deon Augustus, Director of Snackers, showed us around.
Deon Augustus
Deon Augustus, Director, Snackers
“It is a very simple process. We purchase corn from all local producers. We buy corn from the people they supply right here in Belize also. Snackers is all Belizean, Belizean corn. You are noticing it is all Belizeans working in the area, getting this dream accomplished.”
Corn kernels are funneled into the facility from silos on the compound. Those kernels are then passed through a toaster to remove the outer layer. The toasted kernels are conveyed into a grinder at which point water is added to producer masa.
Deon Augustus
“Then that Masa is then flattened by a sheeter. That masa is then cut into these different shapes of the different brands that we have.”
Today, the facility is producing their Bocadas corn chips that are oval-shaped. After being cut into uniformed dimensions, the chips are baked at around four hundred degrees Celsius or seven hundred and fifty-two degrees Fahrenheit.
Deon Augustus
“From that point it then goes to a fryer. And in the case of Bocadas that we are making today, it is cooked at a hundred and eighty degrees Celsius.”
The unique flavors that set apart the four different brands of chips produced by Snackers come together in the seasoning room. Bocadas is lightly seasoned and best used as dipping chips.
Deon Augustus
“After that happens it is then taken up into the bagging area. In the bagging area it starts off with the product being weighed to the specific sizes that we have for each one of our SKUs. After the established set weight or mass of the product is gotten by the machinery, it will be properly bagged, sealed, it is collected manually by each of the workers in that area, placed in the boxes manually. Those boxes are then tapped, palette, stored and ready for distribution and then sale.”
As you have seen, most of the manual labor takes place at the end of the production line during the boxing process. The rest of the production process is entirely automated. And according to Augustus, the technology being utilized here meets international standards. Shauna Arnold is the Marketing Manager at Snackers.
Shauna Arnold
Shauna Arnold, Marketing Manager, Snackers
“We have four different great flavors, we have Asadas, Bocadas, Doradas and Chiladas and Dorados comes in natural cheese, zesty ranch. Chiladas comes more as a spicy flavor. So we have fiery habanero of which we hope to introduce other flavors as well. Asadas and Bocadas are more originally flavored, so they are lightly salted. So, we develop different flavor profile for different consumers that have different needs, different preferences that we hope would satisfy the market.”
The Snackers facility was commissioned in January. Today, the products can only be found in the Orange Walk, Corozal and Toledo districts.
Shauna Arnold
“After the Easter we will be launching in Dangriga, Cayo and Belize City. So, by the end of April people can look out for the product country wide. We should be countrywide. Competition does exist, but I feel like we have spent a lot of time developing a world class product with quality, high ingredients, natural ingredients, no preservatives, done right here. And we have done a great product at an affordable price and that is really what we wanted to introduce to the Belizean consumer that this taste really great and this is affordable for you as well.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.
