Or Derv Foods Rolling Out Sauerkraut Balls And Other Appetizers At New Akron Factory

If it’s Monday it must be meatballs.This past Monday, freshly baked meatballs rolled off a conveyor belt by the thousands at the brand-spanking-new plant owned by frozen appetizer maker Or Derv Foods.The growing Akron company is the creator of regional favorite Bunny B sauerkraut balls.But on this day, the new factory in Akron’s Ascot Industrial Park smelled like an Italian restaurant.“This new plant makes us a player in the food service business,” said Joe Rogers, vice president of sales and marketing at Or Derv Foods.The 20,000-square-foot factory is nearly three times the size of the old plant on Johnston Street, south of downtown Akron.On Monday, workers in the spacious production room fed hundreds of pounds of fresh beef and pork, parsley and other ingredients into a “forming” machine that quickly turned the mixture into meatballs.The balls were then loaded onto racks for baking in a large industrial oven.