About Rudolph Foods Company

Rudolph Foods | A Story of Pork Rinds

For 57 years, Rudolph Foods’ commitment to excellence has been passed from generation to generation, just like their love for flavorful, traditional pork rinds snacks. In 1955, John Rudolph learned of an untapped market for pork rinds and the Ohio entrepreneur quickly launched his own company producing pork rinds from smoked bacon rinds.

Two years later the company would face its first big challenge, the meat industry no longer smoked the rind on the bacon. Under pressure to save their fledgling business, John’s wife, Mary, put her home economics background to work and invented a revolutionary process the company still uses today.

With Mary’s surefire recipe and John’s leadership, Rudolph Foods became a snack industry success story. Since then, John and his sons have continued to dramatically expand their business and the family tradition.

Today, the company has seven facilities in the United States and three International ventures. With more than 400 employees, Rudolph Foods has launched into new areas of the snack food industry while maintaining its presence as the nation’s leading producer of pork rinds and cracklin snacks.

Vision Statement

Our Purpose

All of us recognize that Rudolph Foods is in the business of enriching and nourishing families around the world.

Our Values

The core values of humility, caring, integrity, open and honest communication, personal responsibility and the respect of other humans will be the foundation on which we build our organization.

Our Vision

As we continue to create success into the future ... our employees will be heard saying; “Rudolph Foods is the best place I have worked.” We will be acknowledged and rewarded by consumers who profess their love of our products. Our customers will express their thanks for Rudolph Foods being a “forward leader” and true partner in their growth. Our suppliers will state; “Rudolph Foods strives to demonstrate all that is good about people and business relationships.” Our communities will recognize Rudolph Food’s support of their local communities, the less fortunate, and our commitment to serving God.

The Rudolph Process

• Raw Material Inspecting & CuttingPork skins are visually inspected before entering an automatic slicer. This is just the first part of a continuous quality control process for our pork rinds.
• Step 1 – Drying & Smoke CuringOnly Rudolph Foods slowly dries and cures pork skins while using real hardwood smoke. This gives our pork rinds and cracklins the rich smokehouse bacon flavor consumers prefer.
• Step 2 – RenderingThe second step in our exclusive process is carefully rendering the pork skins to remove excess oil and create pellets ready for frying and seasoning.
• Pellet SizingThe pellets are conveyed automatically through a separator where they are sorted and graded by size, then packaged in specially lined boxes
• Packing & ShippingSealed boxes of pellets are labeled with bar codes and conveyed through a metal detection unit before shipping just-in-time to food processors around the world.
• Frying the Pellets for Pork RindsTo create finished pork rinds and cracklins, the pellets are transferred via conveyors into frying units where they literally “pop” into crispy snacks.
• SeasoningStill hot from the fryer, some of our pork rind snacks are conveyed to tumblers where they are coated with seasoning blends to create special flavors.
• Finished Snacks PackagingIn our automated packaging area, bags are formed and filled with carefully measured quantities of finished snacks, then boxed for shipping to our customers.