I admit, I was a little shocked when I saw Frito Lay was not only a sponsor of the Healthy Living Summit, but was also offering an activity for attendees.
Potato Chips + Healthy Living = ???
Though I’m all about balance & not ruling foods out, I didn’t quite see the connection.
I went back & forth, and finally decided to participate in the tour of the Frito Lay plant. When I don’t understand something, the obvious solution is to learn more about it. Plus, I love “behind the scenes” activities. (Beer tours, anyone?)
To be honest, I was secretly hoping I’d find out some astounding health secret Frito Lay was working into their products, but not so much. It was, however, a fun & informative tour, and I’m glad I went. However, I was left feeling like the day was full of contradictions.
Health Stuff
- Several of Frito Lay’s “original” products contain only 3 ingredients: Potatoes, oil, & salt.
- The oils used are heart healthy! Olive & canola oils aren’t stable enough, but Frito Lay uses a lot of sunflower oil. A majority of the fat in their potato chips ends up being unsaturated.
- “Healthier” versions are being added to the line up: tortilla chips with whole grains, Sun Chips with extra fiber, potato chips with less salt.
The good: No crazy preservatives, chemicals, & fillers in many chips.
The bad: Added fiber comes from “corn bran”, 3 ingredient options only include “original” flavors, little “nutritional” value.
The ugly: Corn, corn, & more corn. Corn bran, corn oil, corn kernels. (Have you read The Omnivore’s Dilemma?)
Sustainability Stuff
- The Beloit, Wisconsin plant is Gold LEED certified.
- Frito Lay is working on a “Net Zero” project- how to make their product with having an impact on the earth. (Capturing heat, recycling water, compostable bags, renewable energy, etc.)
The good: Sustainability is pretty much the equivalent of gold. It rocks. Especially when big companies do it.
The bad: Not all of the plants are using all of the sustainability options the company has.
The ugly: Have I mentioned corn? I’m not sure how that’s being factored into the “zero impact” initiative.
The Tour
On to the actual tour. Seeing the factory at work makes me wish I had decided to be an engineer. Watching the machines in action was amazing. How cool of a job would it be to design a machine that uses color to identify chips that are too brown for consumption?!
Before we were allowed into the plant, we had to take some sanitization & safety precautions.
Hair nets & lint rolling.
Goggles & earplugs.
Ready to hit the factory floor!
Then it was time for some chip action.
Peeled potatoes. I wish they’d leave the skin on. 
Corn squishing for tortilla making.
Uncheesed Cheetos.
Freshly seasoned Cooler Ranch Doritos.
Doritos hot off the press. (So much better than from the bag. Although I accidently tasted the cheeseburger flavored version- gag.)
Evaluating what makes the “perfect” chip.
Lunch & Learn
While we lunched, we listened to a Frito filled presentation.
Lunch was a spinach wrap of marinated veggies, a monster salad, and some fruit.
Have I ever mentioned how much I love fresh pineapple?
There were lots of salad topping options: carrots, sprouts, dried cranberries, walnuts, gorgonzola, croutons, and balsamic dressing.
Health salad balance by yummy treats: a peanut butter cookie & my weakness, Diet Mt. Dew.
Plus plenty of chip snacks- during the presentation, on the tour, and on the bus.
These were some of the regional flavors. We tried the Tangy Carolina BBQ & Garden Tomato Basil. I had to toss my NC loyalty aside- I hated the BBQ version, but the Tomato Basil was great.
The Mad Dash
After a 3 hour bus ride [enter unintentional detour here] to the plant in Beloit, Wisconsin, we were hoping for a quick & uneventful trip back to Chi-town —> a cocktail party was awaiting!
However, no such luck. Chicago traffic had other plans, and eventually it became clear our best option was to debus and hop on the L. 20+ bloggers with overflowing bags of chips rushing through the train station and piling in a single car during train rush hour was quite a sight, but made for a great adventure.
Luckily, we made it in the nick of time. Cocktail party here we come!
{ 24 comments… read them below or chime in }
Does Frito Lay use non-GMO corn? That would be a big issue for me when consuming their product.
This would be my big question, too!
I don’t think so, but I’m not 100%– I’ll try to find out!
Good for the plant to be LEED certified.
I am not the biggest fan of chips – but I do have a weakness for Nacho Cheese doritos.
Wow, this is the first review of this tour I’ve read from the HLS! All very interesting! Thanks for sharing!
I was really shocked, too, that they sponsored the HLS seeing as Frito Lay is the antithesis of healthy living. Even with added fiber (which isn’t the same as eating real fiber from whole grains) their products aren’t healthy. Just like candy with added fiber is still candy. I read Dr. Kessler’s book, The End of Overeating, and he talks about how companies specifically engineer foods to make us want them, and keep eating them. Even if they add a bit of whole grains here, some fiber there, the Frito Lay products are still created to make people snack. A lot.
Wow how informative!!
I wasn’t able to make the tour, thank you SO much for the recap. My fave pictures were of the little chips being born.
Fantastic pro v con discussion. Healthy debate!
I think this is my favorite review of the Frito Lay tour yet. I love the un-biased approach with the good, bad, and the ugly. I also love how you kept an open mind
Yes, love that you showed the pros and cons…still made your own opinion clear, without alienating anyone!
Yea, that is so strange about Frito lay sponsoring the health blog gathering. I am interested to read that omnivores dilemma!
This is such a fantastic review. I really like seeing such an honest recap of the tour with all the facts. I’ve read Omnivore’s Dilemma and seen Food, Inc. and corn scares me. Very interesting that they were a sponsor.
I was also shocked by Frito Lay sponsoring the summit! I assumed they’d at least bring only the “healthy” chips (baked, whole wheat, etc). They ended up bringing the original full-fat varieties, and I think all the HLS attendees were a little confused by that choice!
haha girl you are stunning in your hair net! LOL I agree on the multitude of points in this post. The abundance of corn. But another thing I didn’t like about Frito Lay is the lack of competition. The only thing they could even think of was regional competition. It’s never good when one HUMUNGO brand monopolizes anything.
Either way, it was wondeful meeting you this weekend!!
I was pretty confused that Frito Lay was sponsoring the Summit as well! But from the tour and your recap, it sounds like they are at least making a few good decisions for the planet – just not really for your waistline lol
I think that I am missing something about corn and after reading your post here which I found super informative and others who briefly touched on this topic of a Frito Lay plant tour as part of the HLS I think that I should read Omnivore’s Dilemma.
The book addresses the issue with corn being used in almost everything and what affect that has on our planet. I’m actually rereading, and I’ll do a recap on it soon!
Also interesting is the documentary King Corn, if you want to explore this topic a little more (though not necessarily more in-depth than OD).
Great recap! I have mixed feelings about FL’s ‘healthy’ claims. My motto is everything in moderation!!
Great review of the tour! I don’t know if your guide discussed this, but ours was explaining that Frito-Lay has modified and cloned potatoes to create the perfect potato. They sell the seeds to farmers then buy the potatoes. So…their potatoes come from Wisconsin because they plant them there…they tried to make it seem like they were supporting local agriculture, but not really. Lots of interesting thoughts after this tour!
Obviously potato chips from a bag that can be purchased at a gas station are not a healthy food. The reason I was okay with their sponsorship (and believe me I had doubts) is that I think the Healthy Living Summit is about much more than eating healthy food all the time. Many people attending were recovering from eating disorders and a potato chip represented something more than its ingredients – it was the enemy. I think being around people who are overall healthy and balanced and sometimes eat junk food is healthy. Also, I am not quite sure how much healthier baked or wheat potato chips are – usually they have tons of crap ingredients.
Anyway, thank you for bringing this up. It’s kind of the pink elephant no one really talked about (when I was around).
I completely agree with you- I think it’s so important to stress that junk food isn’t the devil & you can eat it while being healthy
The tour actually made me realize that the “healthier” options weren’t necessarily healthier, which I’m sure can get confusing– I have a follow up post coming up about that 
I was unable to attend- but thanks for the recap!! I thought the same thing with chips at a healthy living conference, but it added a balance
This is a great post! Thanks for presenting it like this — with the pros and cons. I really appreciate your insight.The way I see it, eating potato chips (or other types of chips) in moderation is not necessarily unhealthy. It’s okay to eat junk food once in awhile (and can be very freeing when you allow yourself to do so!). However, I don’t like when companies try to pass products off as “healthy” when they clearly aren’t. Highly processed foods with tons of chemicals in them are not healthy. And, as awesome as sustainability efforts are, being “green” doesn’t mean healthy either. I know I’m a bit of a cynic, but I think companies market their products as green/sustainable (like the new Sun Chips bag) as more of a marketing ploy than a genuine sense of the common good.
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