By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

My first thought upon hearing on New Year’s Day that Plano-based Frito Lay was going to make half of its inventory “all natural” for 2011, was relief. Maybe this would be a good omen for the new year.

Baked Lay's are among the company's natural offerings.

Like most moms with school-aged kids, I’m often in the hunt for a chip that uses a better oil, not too much salt and few, if any, artificial ingredients. Much as I like to send fruit, crackers and veggies for side dishes, I confess to including chips every so often in school lunches. Chips provide crunch and when I ask the benchmark question I apply to all school lunch components — would I eat it? — the answer is “yes”.

I’ll assume that Frito Lay has honest (if profitable) intentions when it promises that its all-natural products (see the list) will contain no synthetic or artificial ingredients, no MSG and no artificial food dyes. That’s refreshing news for a household with one kid who reacts to yellow food dye by breaking out in hives. Last year, when eliminating culprit foods from his diet, I had to exile the Frito Lay’s Cheddar Sun Chips from our pantry. This otherwise healthier chip, had been ruined with a shot of artificial food dye, presumably to make the “cheddar” coating a nice rich yellow-orange flavor. I was surprised and disappointed. I’d been buying Sun Chips without reservation, and obviously without reading the label carefully, for a couple years.

If I’d wanted a neon food with no nutritive value, I’d have gotten Cheetos.

Happily, those Cheddar Sun Chips, which do have some legitimate food ingredients, no longer contain any food dye, according to the current label.

The newly cleansed Lay’s products (some have always been “natural,” a term I enclose in quotes because of its various meanings) present an impressive number of options. They include varieties of potato chips, kettle-cooked chips, all the Sun Chips and the Lay’s acquired Stacy’s pita chips, most beloved at our house.

My second thought? This is a wise move by Plano, Texas-based Frito Lay. Even though consumers complained (like spoiled, whiny kids in my view) about the company’s recently introduced, and withdrawn, compostable snack bags, they are likely to embrace snack foods that meet them on their quest for more natural, wholesome eating. It’s a quest that’s well underway, if one looks at the rising number of farmers markets (over 5,000) in the U.S. and demand for organic food and drink, now a $25 billion business.

As the public becomes more educated about the harmful effects of heart-clogging fatty oils, excess salt and the potential systemic harm from artificial preservatives and colorants, it stands to reason that they’ll choose healthier snacks.

In fact, they already are. We indulge with Michael’s lower fat, lightly salted potato chips created by Michael Seasons, a veteran natural food seller, and the unfussy Stacy’s Simply Naked Pita Chips (great with hummus), which are both widely available, robust brands.

Snack food makers know that without good options for chips, you might just have an apple with that sandwich. They’ve got a big (or should we saying slimming) reason to stay in front of the market.

Copyright © 2011 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network

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