Snack Engineering (page 1)
Manufacturers offered a wider range of ready-to-eat snack foods, introducing new flavors for chips and other treats, while creating novel shapes and textures for easy consumption. In response to calorie-conscious consumers, scientists developed formulas for reducing fat, salt, and sugar in many favorite snack foods and beverages.
Newfangled Chips
In the mid-1960s, researchers working for Procter & Gamble mixed dehydrated potatoes with flour and water to create a product that would outlast conventional chips. The result, Pringles, was a chip formulated for a long shelf-life that was also uniform in size, texture, and shape.
Sugar Free!
In the 1960s producers of carbonated soft drinks became major users of artificial sweeteners. Nutritionists voiced doubts about the ability of artificially sweetened diet drinks to lead to significant weight loss or even calorie reduction, but drinks marketed as “diet” remained popular.