Pringles are not actually chips.
I mean, they're made with potatoes, of course, but...
If you ask people how Pringles are made, someone would probably say that Pringles are made by shaving thin slices of potato, frying them, and adding salt, spices, and other garnishes.
But here's how Pringles are made:
Start with a dough of rice, wheat, corn and potato flakes that are made into a dough.
The snack dough is then rolled out like an ultra-thin cookie dough sheet and cut into cookies with a machine.
The cut is thorough enough that the fries are completely free of the extra batter, which is then removed from the fries by a machine.
The fries move along a conveyor belt until they are pressed into the molds, which gives them the curve that makes them fit.
These molds are placed in boiling oil and fried for a few seconds.
They are then blow-dried, sprayed with powdered flavourings, and finally placed on a slower-moving conveyor belt in a manner that allows them to be stacked.
Then they go into the cans and onto the shelves.
Yes, that's how Pringles are made.
Pringles are 42% potato. So what's in the other 58%?
Vegetable oil, rice flour, wheat starch, salt, and some things called maltodextrin and dextrose.
Sad fact: Years ago, the manufacturer of Pringles argued in a British court that its "high amount of processing and low potato content" technically made its product not potato chips.
They said their fries weren't fries enough.
Chances are they said this to avoid tax. ('Snacks' are recognised as necessary in the UK and are therefore not taxed. Chips, on the other hand, are luxury foods and are therefore taxed.)
Basically, the court said, "Okay. No French fries. No tax for you.
Pringles are still considered chips because they are made with potatoes, but not in the way most people think.
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