Potato chips reach for new flavors, new appeal

From spicy new flavorings to premium ingredients, potato chips are cashing in on a whole new image these days.

"What's been happening lately is there are more companies pushing interesting recipes,"says Jeremy Selwyn, who follows the snack food industry for his website Taquitos.net.

"There's a lot of new things going on,"says Steve Sklar, executive vice president of marketing for Inventure Foods, the team behind a number of snack chip brands, including Boulder Canyon, T.G.I. Friday's and Burger King.

Boulder Canyon aims for the artisan touch with natural ingredients and interesting flavors such as hummus and red wine.

Meanwhile, there's been an effort to simplify ingredients and make chips, if not a health food at least one that's less bad for you. As such, many manufacturers have switched to better quality oils and are working on reducing sodium.