As editor of Did you ever try to sneak a chip without anyone hearing? Apparently it's just about impossible with the new Sun Chip bags from Frito-Lay.
That's according to a story from Page 1 of today's The Wall Street Journal: "Snack Attack: Chip Eaters Make Noise About a Crunchy Bag."
I love the subhead on this one: "Green Initiative Has Unintended Fallout: A Sack as Loud as "The Cockpit of My Jet."
Brad Rodgers, Frito-Lay's North American manager of sustainable packaging, fingers the biobased plastic, polylactic acid, as the cause of the very loud packaging.
The new polymers have a higher "glass transition temperature," which is when a polymer goes from a harder, glasslike state to a rubber state. Because the transition to rubberiness happens a bit above room temperature, the bag is "kind of crispy and crunchy," says Mr. Rodgers.
Don't believe the Sun Chips bag is really all that loud? Check out the video and judge for yourself.
Potato Chip Technology That Destroys Your Hearing from heathaplexVISION on Vimeo.
Comments (3)
Does sustainable packaging have to be loud? Maybe not.
Just minutes after I posted this entry, I received a note from a PR firm for Boulder Canyon Natural Foods.
Here's an excerpt:
"The truth is, 'Green' snacking doesn’t have to wake the neighbors to be effective.
"Unlike the famously loud corn starch-based compostable bag introduced by Frito Lay earlier this year, Boulder Canyon Natural Foods has introduced a fully-compostable bag to its kettle-cooked potato chip line that feels and sounds like a traditional bag of chips should.
"The Bolder Canyon compostable bag is made from wood pulp and can be composted in home or industrial composters or recycled through approved organic recycling programs. It was a first for the natural foods category when Boulder introduced the new package last April. Since that time, select Whole Foods stores have begun stocking the bags, allowing Boulder Canyon to expand the packaging to a number of new flavors."
Posted by Don Loepp | August 18, 2010 12:30 PM
Posted on August 18, 2010 12:30
I'd being willing to give Frito-Lays some sound advice, but I fear all my arguments would fall on deaf ears.
Posted by John Spevacek | August 18, 2010 1:28 PM
Posted on August 18, 2010 13:28
As a consumer of Sun Chips, I love the product and despise the new material for the noise that it makes every time anyone touches it. Obnoxious to the point of making me look for alternative products.
Reminds me of Tropicana's branding mistake..... did anyone talk to the customer?
As a packaging converter I think.... did anyone talk to the customer?
Posted by Packaging maker and user | August 19, 2010 10:11 AM
Posted on August 19, 2010 10:11