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.