About Us

The mission of Miles Willard Technologies, LLP, is to enthusiastically and creatively serve its snack food and potato processing clients worldwide by perpetually developing new, exciting and successful products.

Founding Events:
Miles Willard, a chemical engineering graduate of Drexel University in his hometown of Philadelphia, became a co-inventor of the potato flake process while working at the U.S.D.A. Laboratory in Pennsylvania. That expertise brought him to Idaho to help establish the first commercial potato flake processing plant in 1957.

Ultimately, Miles believed that potato flakes had significant potential for exploitation as an ingredient in snack foods, which led him to become an independent consultant and inventor. His first success was a patented fried potato ring composed mainly of dehydrated potatoes. The crunchy snack called Hula Hoops was introduced in Great Britain by United Biscuit and it remains a top selling savory snack in the United Kingdom today. Other Willard licensees sell the potato ring snack in Germany, Belgium, Holland, Canada, Japan and the Philippines.

United Biscuit purchased the Keebler Company in 1979, and Miles Willard Company was soon developing snacks for the U.S. market. Tato Skins, Ripplins, O'Boisies, Chachos and CC Ricers established Keebler as a major marketer of salted snacks in the U.S.

Thanks to these and many other creative successes throughout the years, Miles Willard Technologies, LLP, grew to become an internationally respected consulting and research and development company with clients worldwide, and Miles himself received numerous awards and honors. Some recent tributes include honorary doctorate degrees awarded by Drexel University and the University of Idaho, induction into the Snack Food Association's prestigious "Circle of Honor", selection for an exhibit at the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and recognition as the Potato Association of America's "Researcher of the Year".

Miles Willard retired in 1998 after achieving his ultimate goal to create a way that his experienced, talented and dedicated team could perpetually develop new, exciting and successful products for clients worldwide. Miles Willard Technologies, LLP, an employee-owned company is the realization of that goal.

The employees and partners of Miles Willard Technologies, LLP, are grateful to Miles for his unique leadership and his exuberant creativity. We pledge to continue the creative work he began in the snack food and potato processing arenas worldwide.

Current Events:
Today MWT consists of 16 highly qualified and experienced research, laboratory, pilot plant and office personnel working together in a 20,000 square foot research center containing a full laboratory, pilot plant, and offices.

These people have more than 200 years of combined experience with commercial snack food and potato processing operations, including formulation, development, laboratory analysis, equipment design and setup, line design, commissioning and troubleshooting.

Their combined expertise has generated more than 48 U.S. patents that have been issued to protect company technology. The company's technology is in turn licensed to clients on a royalty basis.

Employees have professional memberships in the Institute of Food Technologists, American Association of Cereal Chemists, American Institute of Baking, and Association of Analytical Chemists, and MWT is an active member of the United States and the European Snack Food Associations.

Future Events:
This employee-owned company will continue to energetically pursue opportunities to build on our wealth of experience and technology and to develop new products for companies in every region of the world.

In addition to offering more knowledge and services, we are also committed to maintaining the flexible, efficient, cost effective, creative, rapid and superior results that our clients have come to enjoy and expect.

Details about current services, products, key people and clients can be found by clicking on those links.