MommyMandy

On November 1st I left for Plano Texas to attend the Frito lays Immersion Event.  I had the privilege to attend a fantastic event with some great bloggers.

Katja from skimbacolifestyle.com
Andrea from mommysnacks.net
Lori from acowboyswife.com
Lea Ann from mommyswishlist.blogspot.com
Julie from momspective.com
Erika chicshopperchick.com
Toni thehappyhousewife.com
Diane from fittothefinish.com
Tanya from mommygoggles.com

I met up with Tanya at the Airport and we took a cab together to the hotel. That  evening we met up with quite a few of the girls. Katja, Andrea and Lori! We crashed pretty early and were tired!

The next morning I met up with Katja, Andrea, Toni, and Tanya and we walked to have a really nice breakfast. Which we really should have been prepared for all the snacks that would come, not to mention a BBQ lunch!

Around noon we took the shuttle from the hotel over to Frito Lay Headquarters! WOW is all I can say. Not only were we meet by very friendly people but the building was awesome.

Once we arrived to the Headquarters we were given an awesome lunch! BBQ Brisket, BBQ Chicken and baked beans.. mmm! During lunch we were introduced to the people we would be around over the next few days including Aurora Gonzales. Aurora is part of the New Products and Multimedia Campaign which is part of Comprehensive Approach to Reaching Women. That big campaign as most of us have seen is called “Only in a Woman’s World”.

After meeting the other bloggers we were off to the Culinary Center for demonstrations from Stephen Kaili who is an Executive Chef and to see the regional flavor development for Lay’s. I have to say one of my favorite things is that Stephen took the time to learn about all the bloggers attending. I laughed when he go to me and he said “Your our California Blogger!” Stephen was great, and I know my Husband would loved to have met him.

We learned about Culinology, which is really interesting. I have always wanted to go to culinary school, because I love to cook. Even though half the time I have no idea what I am doing, my food comes out pretty tasty! It doesn’t help I have a chef for a husband though!

The Research Chefs Association is the leading professional community for food research and development. Its members are the pioneers of the discipline of Culinology® — the blending of culinary arts and the science of food.

Here are a few things we learned about and got to sample!

Cheeseburger Chips, and smart foods new cinnamon cookies (not sure on the name). Both were good.

I know your thinking, cheeseburger chips?!?! But they really are tasty, even the pickle finish was good.

Next we took a walk through the kitchens and saw all the spices that they use to create these new products.

Who wouldn’t love this kitchen?

After checking out the Culinary Kitchens We went back to the discussion room where we learned about Frito-Lay sustainability. I have to say I didn’t realize what all went into sustainability. I was so impressed with how Frito Lay wants to reduce their usage. They created a 10 year program that started in 1999. By 2009 they wanted to reduce water usage by 40%, natural gas by 33% and electricity buy 23%. They are currently still working on reducing their water usage.  But have already reached their goals. for everything else. They are also saving by reusing boxes (delivery cartons). How cool is that? These delivery boxes can be reused 5 times. 

Next Frontier: Delivering a net zero plant. This includes a Solar field in Modesto CA to heat oil for the plant in Modesto.

Frito Lay also is working hard at sustainable packaging. It  has 3 goals:

1.Reduce the use of nonrenewable resources.

2. Improve environmental footprint.

3. Eliminate waste.

This includes Sun Chip’s new packaging that will be introduced Earth Day 2010! I wrote about these new bags this past year and how they are a 100% compostable bag.

Another way Frito Lay is helping our Earth is that they have made all bags recyclable! Yeah, bet you didn’t know you cna recycle your chip bag did you? Frito Lay is working with Terracycle.  Terracycle coverts Frito Lay packaging into functional  new products. In 2009 alone they have kept 500,000 lbs of packaging out of landfills. 

You can also help by stating a bag brigade at your school.  For every bag you collect your school gets .2 cents! Just think of how much potato chips are consumed each day at your school. That could end up a lot of money for your school.

Check out these awesome speakers made from Cheetos Bags. These are sold at Best Buy!

After leaning about how Frito Lay recycles their packaging we talked with Marissa Jarratt on Marketing to Women and the 2010 preview.  One of the biggest ways Frito Lay is getting to women is through Only in a Woman’s World.  We learned:

• 85% of consumer purchases are made by women
• 85% of creative departments are men
• 58% of women are annoyed by the way advertisers are portrayed by their gender
• 91% of women think advertisers don’t understand them

This ended our first day and we all enjoyed a wonderful dinner together where we got to mingle with Frito Lay Reps, Zocalo Group and all the Bloggers!

 On Tuesday we had one very full day which started at 7:45! We were taken to the  Smart Learning Center for Shopper and In-store Insights presentations. After learning about what the Smart Learning Center does and how they monitor what their consumers buy we were taken to the Dallas Plant! Camera’s weren’t allowed but I did find a picture where chips are being sorted into certain oz sizes so they fit into the snack size bags easily, and so each bag is filled equally.

Isn’t it neat? (The picture below is from a different plant, but I can tell you the ones we saw at the Dallas plant are the exact same, just different chips).

oh and I am still searching for Chester Hot Fries!

Frito Lay makes Dorito chips in Lynchburg
Photo by Mark Rhodes

You can see all the pictures from this evet here:

Disclosure: Thank you to Frito-Lay and Zocalo Group, who paid for my travel expenses to bring me to the Frito-Lay offices in Dallas Texas. I do not accept monetary compensation for reviewing or writing about products or conference events. This is a product I have grown up loving and it was a privilege seeing the company in person.

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