By Karen Scott, Publisher

If you think snacks can’t be tasty, healthy and have a long shelf life, you’ve never heard of Southern Recipe Small Batch pork rinds from Rudolph Foods .

The company decided to improve its products six years ago in response to rising customer interest in better-for-you foods, said Mark Singleton, vice president of sales for the company, one of the nation’s largest private label producers of pork rinds in addition to its own brands.

“This is the best educated consumer in history,” he said. “They wanted lower sodium, they wanted free from MSG, free from artificial color, and so with the very talented young people here at Rudolph Foods, we started working on the project, and we came out with a product that tastes better than anything we’ve ever done. It’s now the number three or four pork rind brand in America in grocery, and we’re doing just super in vending and micro markets.”