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In a matter of weeks, world's largest manufacturer of
Potato Chips,
Pepsico (Frito-Lay) will launch a major advertising campaign
for a new Chips brand in the United Kingdom, Red Sky Potato
Chips.
This product will be positioned as premium
"sharing" chips , the kind of chips (or crisps in the UK)
you serve your friends if they come over to visit, rather
than the chips you eat by the bag at lunch (a common
occasion to eat chips in the UK).
 Simon
Quirk of Market Research Company TNS states in the
Independent: "The average packet of crisps isn’t
going to look good when you’ve got friends coming round. The
flavours and packaging [of the premium crisps] are more
exciting and they’re more appealing for that sharing
occasion.” According to TNS, (UK) shoppers spent £368m (524m USD) on ‘sharing crisps’ in the 52 weeks to 25 January this
year – up 8.7 per cent.
Interesting about these potato chips is also
their high environmental profile and the fact that they
are not launched using the Walkers brand, used for most of
Pepsico's potato chips in the UK. However, the reason
I made these potato chips the topic of today's Newsletter
has nothing to do with all this, but with the way
Red Sky Potato Chips are manufactured.
Let me explain: So far there were two
different ways to fry potato chips: The continuous way
(regular chips) and kettle fried potato chips.
In the continuous way to produce potato chips, a
continuous stream of cut and washed potato slices enters the
fryer and move through the fryer in about three minutes,
partly free floating, partly transported by a belt and end
up at the other side fully fried where they are continuously
removed.
 Kettle
fried potato chips, are sliced a bit thicker, not
washed and are fried "kettle by kettle": the fryer is
filled with uncooked slices, and the slices are fried
and stirred until all water is evaporated. About 7-9 minutes
later all product is removed from the kettle fryer at once
and the process starts a-new by filling the fryer with a
batch of new unfried slices. The kettle frying process is
more suitable for smaller scale operations and the chips
have more bite, have a harder texture.
Pepsico's new Red Sky Potato Chips are fried in a
new way: these potato chips are continuously kettle
fried. The idea behind continuously kettle frying
is to replicate the typical time-temperature profile of the
classical kettle frying process, but in a continuous fryer.
This is not as easy as it may seem, since in the traditional
kettle frying process the frying oil temperature drops a lot
at the beginning of the frying process and then increases
again towards the end of the frying process. This results in
a U-shaped temperature profile.
Nevertheless, Pepsico figured it out! And although
they never told me how they exactly do it (and just to be
clear, I never asked!)
this
patent application for a continuous kettle frying process sheds some light on how it could be done: by
manipulating oil flows they create potato chips that are
crispier, more tasty, contain less oil in a process that is
more controlled and is also more friendly for the frying
oil.
Therefore, Red Sky Potato Chips should be considered a
major breakthrough in the technology for the production of
potato chips.
Can't wait to lay my hands on a bag of these chips.
Share?
Enjoy reading,
Paul van Eijck
Snaxpo 2009, March 29 - April 1, Grand Lakes Florida,
United States
 In
less then two weeks from today, on March 29 in sunny
Florida, the annual conference of the
Snack Food Association, the
Snaxpo 2009 will start. Just like we did for the
Anuga FoodTec, we will prepare a PotatoPro "Snaxpo
special" where exhibitors will be able to highlight some of
the products and services they will show at the Snaxpo. If
you are an exhibitor and want to make use of this
opportunity, please
contact us.
More
Events...
One of our partners (a co-extrusion specialist) has
approached us with the following concept for a new frozen
potato product:
A potato snack, comparable to potato
croquettes, with an inside filling prepared by co-extrusion.
The inside filling can exist out of spinach or other
vegetable and/or any other stabilized sauce. The final
product has a thin coating of alginate (~0.3% of total).
Many different possibilities with regards to size and shape.
If you are interested to add such a product to your
product portfolio, please
contact us.
French Fries and Potato Specialties
Chips and Snacks
Dehydrated Potato Products
Potato Starch
Other Potato Products
Ingredients for Potato Processing
Processing Equipment
Potato Supply Chain
QSR Restaurants
Health and Nutrition
Energy and Environment
Food Trends
Saturn Spraying Systems
Saturn Spraying systems manufactures a range of
Spraying and Dosing equipment, based on the
spinning disk spray technology. Primarily
servicing the bakery, confectionery and snack
food industries. Saturn Spraying System has
developed a low fat solution for croquettes and
other products.
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United Kingdom |
Tact Machines Inc.
Tact Machines Inc is a manufacturer of steam
peeling equipment based in the United States
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United States |
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SaKa Pflanzenzucht GbR / Solana Agrar-Produkte GmbH &
Co. KG
Solana Agrar-Produkte GmbH & Co. KG is the exclusive
export organisation for SaKa Pflanzenzucht GbR, one
of the leading private plant breeding enterprises
producing high quality seed potatoes.
The SaKa/Solana group is offering seed potatoes
produced by the most modern and advanced techniques,
which gives complete assurance equally to the
farmer, the trade and consumer. The portfolio
consists of more than 50 successful varieties.
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Germany |
Bryce Corporation
Bryce Corporation is a US based manufacturer of
packaging films. One of their specialisations is
packaging material for savoury snacks.
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United States |
C. Cretors and Co
Cretors & Co is a manufacturer of popcorn popping
equipment for both industrial scale (flo-thru; from
80 lbs/hr up to over 10,000 lbs/hr) as well as small
scale popcorn poppers for theaters, restaurants.
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United States |
Kerry Group PLC
The Kerry Group is a leading global ingredient
supplier to the food industry, including
flavours for snacks and coating systems
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Ireland |
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