HEGINS, PA - Keystone Potato Products—a key player within Fresh Solutions Network—is earning recognition for its eco-friendly food production practices and environmental sustainability. Spotlighted for having one of the most sustainable food processing plants in the eastern United States, the potato provider was recently honored with the 2024 Green Plant of the Year award from Food Processing Magazine.

“We are honored to receive the Green Plant of the Year award for 2024,” said Dave Masser, Chief Executive Officer of Masser Family Companies and a member of Keystone Potato Products Board of Directors. “Our team is committed to finding innovative ways to protect the environment while producing high-quality potato products. This award motivates us to keep striving for additional sustainability solutions.”

Established in 2003 by the Masser Family of Companies, Keystone represents a collective union of over 40 well-respected, knowledgeable, and successful potato growers from the Mid-Atlantic region, a press release explained. The company focuses heavily on implementing sustainability at each phase of its operations to help yield healthy crops year after year.

The potato producer’s sustainability initiatives are rooted in turning waste into valuable resources through energy conservation, water resourcing, and waste reduction.

Keystone’s innovative facility utilizes cutting-edge technology and eco-friendly practices across its three main operations, the release noted. These include:

• A potato dehydration line that transforms off-grade and poor-quality potatoes destined for landfills into potato flakes and flour
• A fresh-cut plant that produces a wide variety of fresh-cut potato products, including fries, diced potatoes, slices, wedges, and whole peeled potatoes
• Two state-of-the-art automated potato packaging lines for large retail partners

Minimizing the plant’s energy usage, the facility is powered by methane gas from the nearby Commonwealth Environmental Systems landfill. The facility also optimizes a sophisticated water resourcing system, drawing water from an abandoned underground coal mine before purifying it for food production, then treating the used water through an anaerobic digestion process and releasing it into a nearby stream.

The company has also achieved a zero-waste milestone, as all peel, bin, and mash waste generated by its potato processing lines are repurposed as feed for local Pennsylvania cattle farmers, ensuring no potato by-products are sent to landfills.

For more updates on companies setting the standard for industry sustainability, be sure to keep reading ANUK.