Here's an inside look at how M&M's are made

Most of us know (and love) M&M's - those tiny, colorful chocolates that "melt in your mouth, not in your hand."

But very few of us are familiar with the process of how they're made.

Lucky for you, Business Insider visited the Mars Chocolate North America campus in Hackettstown, New Jersey, where 50% of all M&M's sold in the US are made.

Mars Chocolate - a segment of the $33 billion Mars candy, pet care, and beverage company - is the producer of M&M's, along with 10 other billion-dollar brands including Snickers, Dove, Milky Way, and Twix.

The Mars Chocolate North America campus, which opened in 1958 and employs 1,200 people, is home to a corporate office as well as the M&M's factory.

While touring the campus, we learned that the M&M's brand was founded by Forrest E. Mars, Sr. in 1941, and that it was the first candy in space in 1982.

Leighanne Eide, the Mars Chocolate North America site director, walked us through the factory and explained each step of the process. We were restricted from taking photos of certain top-secret areas - but below you'll get a better idea of how the M&M's-making process works: