A Field Trip to the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory

Despite having spent my high school years on Cape Cod, and my frequent visits back to visit my Mom, I had never visited the Cape Cod Potato Chip factory. So on this holiday visit we decided to go.

The factory is located in Hyannis, a stones throw from the Cape Cod Mall. It’s an unassuming building, but as soon as we arrived we were greeted by bright signs that directed us to the tour. While the tour is self-guided, the potato chip making process is very easy to follow by the signs that describe exactly what is happening at each stage.

Cape Cod Potato Chips are my chip of choice – not just because I’m from the Cape, but because the ingredients are so simple – the original variety contains only potatoes, canola oil, and salt. While there are some flavors that contain milk ingredients, I feel more confident after having seen the factory that we can safely eat the potato chips.

I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the process, but it was quite impressive. The most surprising thing to me was that after the chips are sliced, oiled, and baked, there is a person on the conveyor belt that inspects the chips and (by hand) removes the ones that are overly baked or burnt – a job he took very seriously.

And at the end of the tour we got to leave to samples. My fav so far? The Yukon Gold chips!