Despite an FDA Recall of Lay’s, the Potato Chip Is a Real Food With Some Benefits
The alert from the FDA said that Lay’s was recalling some of its Classic brand potato chips because it found “undeclared milk” in some packages. Generally, the potato chip is one of the healthier snacks, however, but with some obvious cautions.
| 31 Jan 2025 | 10:13
The average American consumes over six pounds of potato chips in the course of a year. It’s a snack that is also a food, but one with some obvious caveats. (
)
Although the FDA recently posted that Lay’s had issued a voluntary recall on some of its Classic chips for containing “undeclared milk,” the potato chip snack is popular and is considered a real food with some real food benefits. (
)
Despite a recent FDA recall on Lay’s Classic Potato Chips for “undeclared milk” discovered in some packages that could pose a danger for those with milk allergies, the basic chip generally is a real food with some decent ingredients and one with a rather storied past.
Don’t get me wrong. By any name, potato chips are a dietary challenge. Too much fat for the low-fat folk. Too many carbs for the low-carb crowd. As for calories and sodium, don’t ask.
And as the recent FDA recall shows, there can be some unexpected problems in the manufacturing process and cautionary tales beyond the extra calories. The FDA deemed Lay’s Potato Chips a “Class 1” risk after the company issued a voluntary recall when it found that 6,000 bags of chips in Washington and Oregon contained “undeclared milk” not listed in the ingredients. The FDA noted the existence of undeclared milk in a product poses life-threatening risks for those who have a milk allergy. The FDA notes that the recall is a “voluntary action that takes place because manufacturers and distributors carry out their responsibility to protect the public health and well-being from products that present a risk of injury or gross deception or are otherwise defective.”
But barring the unforeseen, the snack does have some benefits and a storied past.
Americans consume potato chips to the tune of 1.85 billion pounds a year, about 6.6 pounds for every man, woman and child in the country.
The first food similar to a chip popped up in 1817 when English cook William Kitchiner published The Cook’s Oracle, a bestseller over there and over here as well, according to Wikipedia. His fried treats were soon known by their French name, Pommes Frites, and early recipes for American versions began showing up in cookbooks such as Southern cook and author Mary Randolph’s Virginia House-Wife
On a more fanciful note, legend has it that the modern potato chip is associated with Saratoga Springs, New York. One night in 1853, George Crum, a cook at Moon’s Lake House restaurant, was faced with an unhappy customer. Wikipedia says he repeatedly sent back his original fried potatoes, complaining that they were “too thick, too soggy, or not salted enough.” In desperation, Crum finally sliced several potatoes extremely thin, fried them to a crisp, and seasoned them with extra salt. Happily, the customer loved what soon came to be known as “Saratoga Chips.” Because a good story can always be made better, in 1973 the St. Regis Paper Company, which manufactured packaging for chips, ran an ad campaign claiming that Crum’s customer was Cornelius Vanderbilt. Whether that is true is up in the air, but the “Saratoga Chips” brand name is still with us.
And because potato chips are made from potatoes, they deliver some protein, dietary fiber and minerals. In fact, a typical serving of baked chips, which the US Department of Agriculture sets at 12 to 15 per handful depending on the brand, may serve up one-tenth of a mg more protein than a half cup of cooked broccoli, a smidgen less dietary fiber than 3.5 ounces of a fresh-sliced tomato, twice as much vitamin C as a cup of fresh celery, and as much potassium as a cup of cooked white mushrooms.
Given all that goodness, right about now you may be wondering why someone doesn’t just accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative and make a more healthful chip that we can dip as often as we like. Been there, done that, didn’t work. In the low-fat 1990s, snack makers cooked their chips with substitute fats such as Olestra only to watch sales zip up and then zap down just as fast. Low-salt chips have never sold well, and given the fact that the potato is basically a high-carb food, a carb-free or very-low-carb chip is pretty nearly impossible.
But don’t despair. There are rules for picking the most healthful chips.
One: Choose chips that are baked, not fried. Two: Get the ones with zero trans fats that might clog your arteries. Three: Check several labels looking for the chips lowest in sodium per serving. Four: Stick to that USDA one serving at a time and space them out, maybe every other day.
Finally, if you’re feeling creative, you can bake your own chips with a recipe that purports to be the Crum original. It’s right there at https://www.food.com/recipe/saratoga-chips-243867.