Chip bags have plenty of air, and the sun rises in the east Two South Korean students built a raft out of unopened potato chip bags. The raft proved buoyant.
The press coverage on this was predictable. "There's too much air in potato chip bags," the articles inferred, in that somehow the general public is being slighted with each bag purchase.
Sure, there's probably more than necessary, but the air serves a purpose. First of all, the trade lingo calls it "slack fill." The gas padding keeps chips safe in transit.
Secondly, technically it's not air. It's nitrogen. Were it oxygen, it would expedite the potato spoiling process. The nitrogen keeps chips from spoiling. And it's harmless.
Frankly, I like a plump bag as I can be confident that I won't crush its contents in transit to the kitchen. Some bags have more chips than others Rare is the news week where there are multiple stories regarding the air in potato chip bags. An interesting explainer-like feature on Thrillist uncovered which brands have the most chips per bag, and what's the broken-to-unbroken ratio in a given bag of chips.
The article includes non-potato snacks such as Cheetos and Fritos, which performed the best.
When strictly evaluating potato chips, Lays was the best performer. A bag had more actual than claimed chips, and a high volume of unbroken chips. Don't freak out if you see a bright green potato chip A Reddit user found a neon green chip found in a bag of Lay's.
Ironically, the off-color chip wasn't a marketing gimmick or some vibrant form of poison. It's a quality control method gone awry.
Dyed chips (in this case green) are used to monitor time in the fryer. Green chips are easy to find, so the makers pull them out before they hit the bags.