Frito-Lay unveils quieter SunChips bag

Frito-Lay hopes its new SunChips bag will please consumers who complained in droves last year when the company rolled out a "green" bag that could be tossed into the compost bin.

Snackers said the new bag was simply too noisy and detracted from the chip-eating experience. (Translation: In other words, it drowned out the TV and was harder to keep late-night secret chip eating a secret.)

There were so many complaints that the company yanked most of the bags off the market.

Then Frito-Lay scientists began to tackle the bag construction problem.

They had to find a way to quiet the deafening noise created by the wrinkling of two completely different bags sealed together -- the razor-thin bag that protects the food on the inside and the bag on the outside that carries the labeling. Enter rubber.

A rubber-like adhesive sealing the two parts of the bag together acted like a noise dampening agent.

The new bags are arriving in stores now, but only on the plain-flavored chips. We'll have to wait and see whether they new bags have more compostability than the old ones.

So, what do you think? Are you eager to give the bags a test drive?

Personally, I didn't have a problem with the noise of the "green" bags (but they were considerably noisier), but I had a hard time opening them. And who wants to feel like they're too weak to open a bag of chips? Talk about detracting from the chip-eating experience.

-- Rene Lynch
Twitter / renelynch

Photo: StudioGabe via Flickr

Comments

[oaflet]

§
Lout quintet — string trio plus
two audience members fighting over
a noisy Sunchips bag (and its contents).
If only Peter Schickele were still alive.

[Maitreyi Shankar]

Any idea what material these bags are made from?

[Laura]

But they weren't really compostable, either. Only in a "municipal" composting program. And the people running those programs were picking them out, because they looked like trash. I tried putting one in my backyard compost bin and it sat in there for three months and did nothing. I eventually pulled it out and threw it away. Don't let Frito-Lay fool you. It was more than just the noise (and by the way, they were VERY loud). The bags were disappointing on many levels.

[Debbie]

Who in the world cares? There are many more important things to report than a stupid chip bag.

[Allison]

I thought the bag being noisy was funny and it didn't bother me at all. I hope this will please the rest. Maybe this will pave the way for all bags to be compostable and reduce trash.

[Matthew T]

"These bags are too noisy! They're making me angry! GRRR! Darn you bags! What? What's that you say? A bowl? What is this magical chip-holding device you speak of? NO! I must dip my hand into a giant bag. It's the only way I'll enjoy them!"

[Jim Smithie]

People are idiots. A bag that is too loud? Come on...now I know what foreigners mean when they talk about America becoming more and more emasculated.

[mojo]

Really? People complained about how loud a CHIPS bag was? How coddled can we get, when we're complaining about the sound level of the packaging of our unnecessary and unhealthy empty calorie snack foods? Let us get fat and sedentary in silence, Sun Chips!

We want to help save the planet, unless it's slightly louder than the "Modern Family" episode we're watching at the moment. Geez.