Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 20, 1990 TAG: 9006200085
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DENA KLEIMAN THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Invented more than 100 years ago, it remains this country's No. 1 snack food even as it continues to tap the nation's spirit of individualism and regional pride.
It is the potato chip, the $3.9 billion a year summertime picnic staple that Americans continue to wolf down in record numbers although they disagree about color, crunchiness and flavor.
"Potato chips are like baseball teams," said Dan Feld, whose Saratoga Potato Chip Co. in New York City recently introduced an appropriately partisan line of chips called Bronx Chompers. "People feel very emotional about them and are proud of what they like."
Take Dan Murphy, a businessman in Scottsdale, Ariz. Originally from Detroit, he still has his favorite potato chips, Made Rite, shipped to him via Federal Express from Bay City, Mich.
"They're just better than any other chip I have ever eaten," Murphy said.
According to the Snack Food Association, a trade association in Alexandria, Va., every year Americans gobble down an average of 6 pounds a person, for an annual total of 1.5 billion pounds.
Still, say industry analysts, Americans differ from region to region when it comes to preferences for flavor, "mouth feel" and bite.
And while no one keeps count, the association estimates that there are hundreds of companies producing potato chips. The Northeast favors its chips dark, while the Midwest prefers them light, industry spokesmen say.
The Southwest likes its chips flavored with jalapeno peppers, while New England likes chips flavored with vinegar and salt.
Lay's potato chip, a flat, pale chip manufactured by Frito-Lay Inc. of Plano, Texas, is the best-selling brand. But Americans still gravitate to small regional brands like Humpty Dumpty (Maine) Mike-sell's (Ohio), Mister Bee (West Virginia) Utz (Pennsylvania), and Granny Goose (California) that for the most part are available only in small corners of the market or through mail order.
"The hometown favorite is an equity we believe in," said Greg Metzger, vice president of marketing snacks for Borden, which in recent years has acquired 13 regional potato chip companies across the United States and Canada, including Clover Club in Utah, Jay's in Illinois, Guy's in Kansas and Laura Scudder's in California.
The potato chip is said to have been invented in 1853 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. As legend has it, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad magnate, was dining at a lodge there when he became so dissatisfied with the potatoes he was served that he sent them back to the kitchen.
The chef, George Crum, is said to have become so incensed by the complaint that he impulsively sliced up a potato and threw it into a vat of hot oil. The result: potato chips, which by the turn of the century were being made around the nation.
From the start, regional differences were a potato-chip signature, as different companies used different oils, potatoes and methods of preparation.
Given the relatively short shelf life of chips as well as their fragility, it was not practical to ship them over large distances.
While plain salted potato chips remain the most popular variety nationally, preferred by 70 percent of consumers, the taste, color, consistency, crunchiness and greasiness varies widely.
The Humpty Dumpty Potato Chip Co. of South Portland, Md., for example, is proud of its ketchup-flavored chip and one seasoned with sour cream and clams.
The Made Rite Potato Chip Co. of Michigan, has been known for light, thin non-greasy chips since 1940. Mike-sell's Potato Chips of Dayton, Ohio, has been using 100-percent peanut oil for its chips for 80 years. Utz of Hanover, Pa., a company founded in 1921, fries its potatoes in cottonseed oil.
"People simply swear by different things," said Marc Bolich, a grocery buyer for Stauffer's of Kissel Hill, a Lancaster, Pa., grocery chain that stocks chips of 17 companies.
While there is some effort in the industry to reduce the amount of oil and salt on some lines of chips, potato chips as a whole are clearly a high-fat, high-calorie item with little nutritional merit.
Frito-Lay recently introduced a product called Ruffles Lite, which has one-third the fat of its regular Ruffles potato chips. The specific process is secret, a company spokesman said, but involves extracting some oil after the chips have been cooked.
According to the spokesman, 18 Ruffles Lite potato chips have 120 calories and 6 grams of fat, compared with 150 calories and 9 grams of fat in the regular version.
While it's too soon to tell whether people will be willing to forsake their favorite brand of chip for a lower-fat or no-cholesterol version, there is one clear trend in the industry: the rise of the so-called kettle chip, a thicker variety that has harder bite, or crunchiness, and more concentrated flavor.
Generally kettle chips are prepared the old-fashioned way, in batches, as opposed to being fed through a conveyor belt.
"This hard-bite product is playing across the country," said Mark Brown, director of marketing for Frito-Lay, which dominates the snack-food industry with products like Lay's, Ruffles and Doritos tortilla chips. A year ago it introduced its kettle-style chip, Crunch Tators.
"It has cornlike attributes," Brown said. "More bite. More crunch. Greater texture."
Even among the kettle chips, there is an abundance of regional varieties. For instance, Zapp's Potato Chips of New Orleans offers a Cajun dill chip, which according to Ron Zappe, who owns the company, "tastes like a hot, tart pickle."
Tim's Cascade Style Potato Chips of Auburn, Wash., offers an alder-smoked kettle chip flavored with wood indigenous to the area. Michael Season's Handcooked Potato Chips of Chicago feature chips with the skins still on them.
"Potato chips provoke strong reactions in people," said Stephen Bernard, president of Cape Cod Potato Chips, which unveiled its kettle-style chip in Hyannis, Mass., 10 years ago and now sells them on the East Coast and elsewhere. "It evokes a lot of feeling in them. And when it comes to chips, they are very loyal."
by CNB