LIBERTY — “Are you ready?” new CEO Paul Nardone asks.

Wearing a blue-colored hair cap, protective eye glasses, a long, white, button-down type of lab coat, long pants, shoes, and with all jewelry removed, Nardone beckons to follow him through two doors that lead into an entrance room to the facility.

As the second door closes, loud sounds, delicious smells and foreign sights immediately fill the senses.

Ideal Snacks in Liberty, now under ownership of Better For You (BFY) Brands, is like the real-life version of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

A manufacturer of many of the popular snacks people can't wait to snatch up on the shelves at ShopRite, Peck's Markets, Walmart and more, Ideal Snacks produces puffed snacks for big brands like Quaker, Slim-Fast and Kellogg's as well as their own unique brand, PopCorners.

Started in 1998 in just a 30,000 square foot building, Ideal Snacks was a rice cake contract manufacturer, producing for some of the leading brands of rice cakes in the United States.

But not the small puffed rice cakes most are familiar with today ... they produced the original large four-inch rice cakes.

“We no longer do those large rice cakes, we produce the small ones,” says Nardone, “but there's interest and potential customers who would like to see us do those large rice cakes again so we're exploring that. It would be interesting because it would bring the company right back to its roots.

“It started with those rice cakes and along the way our head of engineering, Steven VanPoucke, invented a technology that's a proprietary patented platform,” he adds, “so you'll see our puffers, but the story really starts in rice cakes. The puffer equipment that we have is similar but different in many respects than the rice cake equipment.”

Before entering the secured facility an obligatory handwashing takes place in which you place your hands inside a machine. Within seconds warm water and soap is sprayed onto your palms and fingers, bringing a childish smile to your face. The washing is followed by drying.

Next are your feet. Two mats with liquid are laid out on the floor for you to step onto in order to clean the bottom of your shoes.

“Visitors always love this part for some reason,” says Nardone, smiling. “They always get a kick out of it.”

Following Nardone through heavy plastic strip curtains, all types of machines come into view and the loud humming of production fills your ears.

Nardone turns around and states, “We have people that build and are able to repair our machines right here on site.”

Then comes the room with Ideal Snacks' patented puffer technology invented and created by long-time employee and VP of Engineering, VanPoucke. These machines are essentially the “secret sauce” to creating their unique popped snacks that are no longer limited to just rice.

Small grains consisting of peas, beans, corn, potato, whole grains or rice [depending on the product being made] are dropped into the machine, explained Nardone.

“Those pellets are then compressed under high pressure and heat,” he says, “and when they are compressed like that, it's kind of like popcorn ... they want to pop.”

Different textures and puffiness results from whether the product is compressed once or twice. Once makes it puffier more like a rice cake, and twice, makes it flatter and crispier like a chip, but without the oil and grease.

Moving out of the popping room and into the next, the smells just keep getting better and more intricate.

The recently popped chips are checked by a worker who stands alongside a conveyor belt making sure none are malformed or burnt.

Every hour or so, another worker takes a sample of each product being manufactured to make sure it's the right color, the right consistency, the right amount of seasoning and so on. All of these things are entered into a computer in a small room that when inside, feels like a secret molecular lab.

Large spinning drums, monitored by more workers, coat puffed crisps with seasoning before dropping them into trays on moving conveyor belts that travel up, over and through into the following adjacent room before being dropped into a multi-head weigher.

The weigher portions the product, by weight, into the packaging machine below where it's bagged and sealed before being sent down another conveyor belt to workers who place the bags in boxes or on display shelves.

Vice President of Operations Jesse Shultis and Plant Manager Marvin Cardenas can mostly be found on the floor making sure everything is running smoothly, monitoring machines, temperatures, workers, etc.

“The most amazing part is all of these people working together to create a product,” says Shultis. “The amount that gets done on a day-to-day basis, and a week-to-week basis, is just incredible.

“I've been working here for nearly 14 years, and to this day I still feel like I learn something new, or experience something new. It's an amazing place to work.”

Walking through the packaging floor, you are then met with walls and towers of boxes that seem larger than life, invoking the thought of “how on Earth did they stack those so high” and “wow that's a lot of product!”

Overcoming a bad rap

“What happened in May 2015 was a difficult moment for the company but I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about what really happened,” Nardone openly states.

“For better or worse, we own the entire history so I really had to be brought up to speed about what happened prior to the company being acquired last year,” he adds.

In May 2015, the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security conducted an audit of all employee files and determined that approximately 240 workers at the plant did not have legal documentation to work there. The Company was forced to terminate all 240 workers or it would be faced with enforcement action and fines imposed by ICE.

“That was a really hard thing and I think in some ways we haven't fully recovered from it,” explains Nardone. “Putting aside whether their documentation was legit or not, those employees were great people, good workers, were making a good living and that all ended within a day. That was a pretty traumatic event and a shock to all of the employees and company. Many of the employees protested their sudden termination but the company had no choice but to follow ICE orders.”

Shortly following, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) audited the company over the course of two visits due to reports of safety issues.

According to Nardone, OSHA cited three main issues: Inadequate ladders (did not have adequate anti-slip treads), lack of adequate training in the laundry room regarding use and dangers of laundry detergent chemicals, and lack of posted hazard communications (in the same area) regarding the laundry chemical hazards.

Ideal Snacks was fined a total of $10,000 in violations, which Nardone said they took seriously and implemented corrective measures immediately.

“When a company is faced with something like this,” says Nardone, “they need to take immediate action. So when I came on board I felt the best thing to do would to take the high road and become an E-verified organization.”

E-verified is a government system in which documentation employees submit upon applying for a job is then put through a check that tells the company if it's authentic or not.

Onward and upward

And what else is new at Ideal Snacks? Their newly launched PopCorners line called “Our Little Rebellion”; a training center and a facility to invite the public to see how seasonings and flavors are created and tested; a facility to get feedback from the consumer.

Ideal Snacks now creates Bean Crisps and Crinkles. There are new delicious flavors, new branding and packaging, and their popped snacks are now non-GMO and completely gluten-free.

You may also be wondering what happens to the puffed and popped snacks that aren't used or are simply being tested for texture and consistency.

They are fed back to the cows.

“It's just corn or beans,” says Nardone with a smile stretched from ear to ear, “so it's recycled by being taken to farms in the Hudson Valley region who use it for feeding their cows. So, essentially we aren't producing food waste.”

For more information on new products get to a store near you or visit ourlittlerebellion.com