How It's Made: Mashed Potatoes From Bob Evans

Live from Lima, Ohio - here is an exclusive look at how your favorite side dish from Bob Evans is made.

Bob Evans

From mashed potatoes to macaroni & cheese, Bob Evans - the leading producer and distributor of home-style refrigerated side dishes, has been delighting the taste buds of consumers across the US for almost 70 years. Started out as a sausage business by Bob Evans himself in 1948, the company has since expanded its product lines to include the popular mashed potatoes, glazed apples, macaroni & cheese, breakfast burritos, and sausage gravy & biscuits - just to name a few. Bob Evans prides in its high quality, fresh ingredients that are used to make the products. The company promises that they do "all the washing, peeling, seasoning and cooking" - but are they true to their words? Let's find out - by visiting one of Bob Evans' manufacturing plants in Lima, Ohio.

Truck loads of fresh potatoes are delivered to the plant. Once the potatoes make their way into the facility, they undergo several rounds of quality assurance. Rocks (...and golf balls!) are filtered out from the loads during the washing stage. Once peeled and diced, the potatoes are scanned through an "x-ray" to detect and rid of black spots before they are steamed in a pressure cooker for 13-15 minutes.

During the mixing stage, ingredients you can pronounce - milk, butter, salt, and seasoning - are added to the potatoes to add more flavors. Depending on the varieties, additional flavors like white cheddar, romano, herb, roasted garlic, chive, and sour cream are added. Did you know Bob Evans has 9 different varieties of mashed potatoes? As always, Bob Evans does not add any artificial colors or flavors to its products.

After the potatoes are washed, steamed, mashed, and seasoned, they are piped and packaged into individual containers. The quality assurance process doesn't end here. Bob Evans has "Super Tasters" who can detect the origin of potatoes based on one bite. These tasters also monitor the viscosity of the final products to ensure consistency of texture, taste, and flavors across all the products.

Ta-da! The mashed potato has perfectly smooth, fluffy, and creamy texture with real flavors of potatoes, milk, and butter that you can taste with each and every bite. I just couldn't put my spoon down! The final product is no different from the mashed potato you would make from scratch at home -- and this holds true for all of Bob Evans products. The company's commitment to delivering high quality products to households across the country has been running deep since its birth, and its popularity over the years is a testament to this fact.