Meg Dowd - Just Born

July 21, 2018. Our program featured Meg Dowd who serves as Corporate Affairs Specialist for Just Born. The history1 of the company dates to 1923 when Sam Born opened a candy store in Brooklyn. He promoted his candy as being so fresh it's like it was Just Born. Eventually other family members joined in and the company relocated to Bethlehem, PA where they currently employ about 600.

Meg showed us videos detailing how two of the companies most famous products are produced. Mike and Ike candies debuted in 1940 and were named for a popular vaudeville act... or maybe the people who invented the candy... or maybe something else entirely. The company produces the centers of the candy at a rate of 75,000 per minute. The centers are placed in vats that resemble cement mixers. The candy is rotated relentlessly whilst a variety of flavorings and coatings are added. The entire process lasts several days. The candy features five flavors and is produced at a rate of 500,000 boxes per day. The Company's flagship product is the iconic marshmallow Peeps.

Just Born set out to purchase a specialty candy company in 1953. That company also happened to produce a marshmallow-based confection in the form of winged chicks. The people making the candy had to extrude each part through a piping tube. The process took 27 hours to create each Peep. Bob Born decided that the wings were too time consuming and the Peeps soon lost their ability to fly. The new process takes only 6 minutes to create a Peep as they travel down an automated assembly line that stretches for about one hundred yards. About 2 million are produced every year. The ingredients include sugar, com syrup, gelatin, air. and love. Peeps are the number 1 non-chocolate item placed in Hasler baskets. Just Born's other products include Peanut Chews, TeeNee Beanees. Jelly Beans, and Hot Tamales.