Ken's Foods facts for kids
Ken's Foods is a company that makes food products like salad dressings, sauces, and marinades. It's based in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The company makes products for stores and for other food businesses. They even make products for other companies, like Newman's Own.
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What Ken's Foods Does
Ken's Foods is one of the biggest makers of salad dressings in the United States. Only Kraft Foods and Wish-Bone sell more.
The company has its main office in Marlborough. It also has factories in McDonough, Georgia, Lebanon, Indiana, and Las Vegas, Nevada. More than 1,200 people work for Ken's Foods.
A big part of Ken's Foods' business comes from making products for other companies and restaurants. In 2001, this part of the business made about $100 million in sales. The bottled products sold in stores made almost $88 million in 2002.
Helping Communities and the Environment
Ken's Foods helps create jobs in the areas where its factories are located. For example, the factory in Henry County, Georgia, employs many local people. The company tries to make its factories more efficient. They also invest in new equipment and ways to work better. In 2020, Ken's Foods planned to invest $103 million in its Georgia location. This money would help upgrade production lines and improve how things are moved around.
The company also cares about the environment. In 2008, their Massachusetts factory started using a special system. This system helps clean the wastewater from making sauces and dressings. It's called an Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor (AnMBR). This technology helps the company use more renewable energy. This means they rely less on older energy sources that can harm the environment.
History of Ken's Foods
The name Ken's Foods comes from a restaurant called Ken's Steak House. Ken and Florence Hanna started this restaurant in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 1941. People loved the salad dressings at the restaurant. They started asking the Hannas to bottle the dressings so they could buy them.
In 1958, the Hannas allowed a family friend to use the restaurant's name. That's when the Ken's Foods manufacturing company officially began.
New Products and Changes
In 2010, Ken's Foods launched a new line of dressings called "Healthy Options." After a time when the economy was tough, many people wanted healthier and more affordable food. The "Healthy Options" line was made to be even healthier than their "lite" dressings. These new dressings had less salt and fat. They also included more omega-3s, which are good for you.
Sometimes, companies face questions about their product labels. In 2020, some customers felt that Ken's Foods' labels were misleading. The labels on some bottles said, "Made with Extra Virgin Olive Oil." However, customers noticed that olive oil was not a main ingredient. The company denied trying to trick anyone. But to be more clear, Ken's Foods did change the labels on their bottles.
