Potato crisps

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Potato crisps (chips in North America) are very thinly sliced potato which were originally deep fried, although today more healthy baked versions are available. Potato crisps are the most popular snack food in the UK with the Walkers brand alone being eaten by over 11 million people each day^[1] Whilst being the most popular, they had their origins in the United States.

Contents 1 History 1.1 1853 1.2 1913 1.3 1920 1.4 1947 1.5 1948 1.6 1950/60s 1.7 1981 1.8 1988 1.9 1990s 1.10 Present day 2 Flavours 2.1 Notes 3 Companies 4 References 5 External Links

[edit] History

[edit] 1853

In 1853, an American Indian chef named George Crum working at Cary Moon’s, Moon Lake Lodge restaurant in Saratoga, New York, prepared food for the guests including the railway magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt. In response to Vanderbilt’s constant complaints about the thickness of the french fries he was being served, Crum purposely thinly sliced potatoes and deep fried them. The resulting product rather than upsetting Vanderbilt was a hit with and the idea soon spread. ^[2] The Vanderbilt story has more recently been proven to be an urban legend.^[3] There appears to be no direct reference to the product being brought over the the UK until 1913.

[edit] 1913

The first producer of crisps in England was a gentleman called Carter. He produced a limited supply of the thin fried potatoes which he claimed he found in France rather than the United States. ^[4]

[edit] 1920

A Londoner, Frank Smith from Cricklewood heard about Crums’ idea and he started to manufacture crisps. He started in his garage and whilst his wife cut the potatoes, he fried them and wrapped them in greaseproof paper.^[5] Within 12 months Smith had to move a purpose designed premises in order to keep up with demand. As his crisps became popular, people asked for some additional flavour, so Smith came up with the idea of enclosing a small packet of salt with the crisps so people could add the salt as they wished. This alteration became a main stay of British crisps for many years and which Smiths were famous, for their little blue bag of salt.

Smith eventually succumbed to the depression and in 1932 he went into liquidation and moved operations to Australia.^[6] Soon with the help of a friend George Ensor, a new company Smiths Crisps (Australia) was set up with a return to the UK as Smiths Crisps UK Ltd following quickly and selling Smith’s Crisps in the UK once again.

[edit] 1947

In 1947, Scottish baker William Alexander went into business making crisps and founded the company Golden Wonder after the variety of potato he used the Golden Wonder^[7]. He pioneered the method of adding salt to the crisps before packing.

[edit] 1948

In the 1880s a pork butcher named Henry Walker moved to Leicester, to take over a butchers shop and formed the Walkers Company. In 1948, following the Second World War, meat was rationed and the company was having problems in finding enough produce to keep the company going. Walker started to look for new ways keep the company in business. Henry and the then Managing Director R.E. Gerrard looked for new ideas for products to sell. Gerrard suggested going into ice cream, but hygiene problems prevented this, he then hit on the idea of crisps. As potatoes were not rationed, there was no problem with supply. ^[8] From this idea Walkers Crisps was born. The first production was on an unused floor of the Oxford Street site in Leicester.^[9]

[edit] 1950/60s

There is disagreement on who produced the first flavoured crisp, the official web sites of Smiths, Tayto (Ireland) and Golden Wonder all claim the first flavoured crisp, however it is accepted that Tayto did bring out the first flavoured crisp in Ireland,^[10] whilst Smiths and Golden Wonder argue for the title in mainland Britain.

Tayto claim to have produced the first Cheese and Onion flavour crisps between 1954 and 1956.^[11]

Smiths claim that they were the first when in 1961 they introduced the first chicken flavoured crisps.^[12]

Golden Wonder claim that they in 1962 made the first flavoured crisp by producing cheese and onion,^[13] which today still remain a best selling flavour. At the same time they perfected the sealed packet which revolutionised freshness of the product. Throughout the 1960s, flavouring technology improved and many new flavours were introduced by all the major manufacturers.

[edit] 1981

Welsh pub owner Philip Lewis produced a new flavour of crisps as an independent manufacturer, this flavour was to go down in history. Lewis called his crisps ‘Hedgehog Flavoured’. This brought an immediate reaction from the public and the Office of Fair Trading intervened in 1982. It was found that the flavour used was actually pork and after several court appearances on the charge of false advertising the case was dropped when Lewis called Gypsies into the witness stand to testify that hedgehog does taste like pork. The result was that the crisps had to be re-named to ‘Hedgehog Flavour’. ^[14]

[edit] 1988

Cameron Healy who founded Kettle Foods in Salem, Oregon, America in 1978 came to England on holiday in 1987 and decided to introduce his chips into England. A year later in 1988, following a visit to the Truckers crisp company in Norwich, Norfolk, Kettle Foods Ltd. was founded. Kettle Foods set up in part of their factory. After 5 years, they had expanded to the point that they moved to new premises at Bowthorpe on the outskirts of Norwich.^[15]

[edit] 1990s

The 1990s saw a dramatic increase in the number of corn and potato snack products coming on the market. The crisp manufacturers fought back by introducing a wide variety of new flavours from the simple to the exotic.

Even in this tight market, new companies managed to find room to sell their products. One such company was the American Boston Foods with their range of kettle chips branded as Cape Cod Chips.^[16]

[edit] Present day

The last few years have seen some major changes in the crisp industry as well as the advent of the small hand made crisp company. In 2001 Burts Crisps of Kightsbridge, Devon started making hand made crisps.^[17] They not only sold them as being more healthy than regular crisps but as traceable. Each pack tells the consumer where the potatoes came from and who fried them, they now sell more than 6 million packs a year.^[18]

Golden Wonder went into administration in January 2006.^[19] they were rescued to some degree when Tayto bought some of their operation in 2006 in the same month, and then on January 6th, administrators (Kroll's Corporate Advisory & Restructuring Group) were appointed.^[20] This allows them to still trade whilst Kroll reviews the options.

Of all the flavours that have been introduced or are still on the market, Cheese and Onion remains the most popular in the UK.^[21]

Later developments saw the Smiths name as well as Wakers (both part of Nabisco) becoming part of the American Frito-Lay company which in turn was bought by PepsiCo. Following the take over, the brand known as Tudor was dropped and Smiths have all but been phased out. Today many supermarkets produce their own brand labels of the most popular flavours.

The trend to a more healthy snack has also played a big part in product development, with light, low salt and low fat crisps now being produced by most of the major players in the market.

[edit] Flavours

UK crisps have and do come in a vast variety of flavours^[22]

Walkers
Ready Salted	BBQ Rib	Branston Pickle1	Cheddar Cheese
Cheese and Onion	Feta and Herb1	Greek Kebab1	Tomato Ketchup
Lamb and Mint	Marmite	Pickled Onion	Prawn Cocktail
Roast Chicken	Salt and Vinegar	Sausage and Ketchup1	Smokey Bacon
Spicy Chilli	Steak and Onion	Unsalted	Turkey and Bacon1
Tomato and Basil1	Toasted Cheese2	Bovril2	Paxo Stuffing2
Cheese and Chive2	Beef and Onion2	Worcester Sauce2	Barbecue2
Curry2	Cheese on Toast2	Baked Bean1	Cheese and Pickle3
Barbecue Chicken3	Bacon and Ketchup3	Lamb with Moroccan Spices4	Oven Roasted Chicken with Lemon and Thyme4
Sea Salt4	Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper4	Thai Sweet Chilli4	Vintage Cheddar and Red Onion Chutney4
Caramelised Onion and Sweet Balsamic Vinegar4	Gently Infused Lime and Thai Spices4	Oven Roasted Chicken and Thyme5	Roast Pork and Creamy Mustard Sauce5
Chargrilled Steak and Peppercorn Sauce5	Roasted Onion and Balsamic Vinegar5	Slow Roasted Lamb and Mint5	Four Cheese and Red Onion5

Smiths
Bovril	Ready Salted	Salt ‘n’ Shake	Plain
Salt and Vinegar	Roast Chicken	Barbecue Sauce	Sour Cream and Onion
Cheese and Spring Onion6	Greek Feta and Herb6	Italian Tomato and Basil6	Italian Cheese6

Golden Wonder
Ready Salted	Sausage and Tomato2	Cheese and Onion	Plain
Smokey Bacon	Prawn Cocktail

Tudor
Plain2	Gammon2	Cheese and Onion2	Bovril2
Pickled Onion2

Cape Cod
Fresh Garden Herb	No Salt	Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper	Beachside Barbecue

Burts
Salted	Hot Chilli Lemon	Firecracker Lobster	Bullshot
Bloody Mary

[edit] Notes

• 1 – Special Editions
• 2 – Discontinued
• 3 – For Comic Relief 2005
• 4 – Sensations Range
• 5 – Sensations Range discontinued
• 6 – Smiths Postcard from the Mediterranean Range

[edit] Companies

• Golden Wonder Crisps
• Walkers Crisps
• Smiths Crisps
• Frito-Lay Chips

[edit] References

[edit] External Links

• Burts Crisps official site
• Cape Cod Chips official site
• Golden Wonder official site
• Walkers Crisps official site
• Smiths Australia official site
• Tayto Crisp official site