Vegetarian Star

It’s a good day when mainstream brands of junk food recognize everybody needs healthier junk food.

Frito-Lay has announced it’s cleaning up the ingredient lists in more than 60 of its products, including Lay’s flavored potato chips, Tostitos tortilla chips, multigrain SunChips and Rold Gold pretzels.

Say good-bye to FD&C Red 40 and monosodium glutamate,  two items linked to hyperactivity in children and headaches and obesity, respectively. Instead, Frito-Lay performed taste tests among customers and found ways to incorporate items like molasses, malted barley flour and paprika to improve the flavors of its products.

Tim Fink, director of Frito-Lay’s seasonings team said it best when he said: “If the ingredient isn’t in a consumer’s cupboard, can we get it off the label?”

So what can we expect to see on the changed labels?

Here’s an example of the old and new labels on Frito-Lay’s Salt and Vinegar Chips.

Old

• Potatoes
• Sunflower Oil and/or Corn Oil
• Salt & Vinegar Seasoning: Lactose, Sodium Diacetate (a vinegar flavor common in the food industry), Maltodextrin, Salt, Malic Acid, Sodium Citrate (gives chips a tart, acid tanginess and flavor), Sunflower Oil

New

• Potatoes
• Vegetable Oil: Sunflower, Corn and/or Canola Oil)
• Salt & Vinegar Seasoning: Maltodextrin (a corn-based starch, is a flavor carrier that helps more venly distribute dry seasoning), Natural Flavors, Salt, Malic Acid, Vinegar.

This isn’t the most comprehensive revamp, as fat, sugar and salt are wavering much. But it is a start.

More at the Wall Street Journal.

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