Snack Chat

SunChips Celebrates the World's First 100% Compostable Chip Bag

Today, on the eve of Earth Month, our SunChips brand is officially introducing the world’s first 100 percent compostable chip bag! The compostable bag can be found in market now and will be in full national distribution by Earth Day!  

The new 100 percent compostable bags are made with plant-based polylactic acid (PLA), a renewable material that also allows the bags to fully compost in approximately 14 weeks when placed in a hot, active compost bin. 

SunChips is also launching a national composting education initiative, which will be brought to life through partnerships with the U.S. Composting Council and Earth 911 -– two highly respected leaders within the sustainability movement -- to promote composting through educational materials, consumer outreach and other awareness-building activities.  SunChips hopes to reach more than one million American households directly through this effort.   

Additionally, SunChips is joining forces with Current TV for a unique program that challenges consumers to create videos that encourage positive change in the world and feature the SunChips compostable bag. The winning video will be selected by Current Chairman and co-founder Al Gore and is slated to air on national TV during Earth Week. 

Lastly, SunChips has recruited nationally recognized “green lifestyle” expert Sophie Uliano as an ambassador for the effort, and will heavily leverage SunChips packaging, point-of-sale displays, Web site and social media channels on Facebook and Twitter to encourage composting -- a truly comprehensive program.  

To kick off the composting awareness initiative, today, SunChips is hosting a unique, hands-on educational event in Los Angeles designed to demonstrate how consumers from all walks of life can come together with small steps of their own to create a big difference.  To accomplish this, SunChips is unveiling a 25x40 feet billboard representation of its 100 percent compostable bag, made out of hundreds of compostable tiles.  

At 2:00 p.m. Pacific today, Sophie Uliano, along with hundreds of consumers, kicked-off a large-scale composting demonstration that simulated the compostability of the SunChips bag by gradually removing the tiles from the world’s largest “compostable” billboard over the course of an hour.  The event, currently underway, is being recorded by the Current Network, and we'll share the video online as part of the nationwide education campaign.

Stay tuned for a recap of today's SunChips composting simulation in Los Angeles -- more coming to Snack Chat later this week!

- Kristin Holmes

Frito-Lay Continues to Make Progress with Fleet Sustainability

Last week, I attended the PepsiCo Fleet Convention in Fort Worth, Texas, and had the opportunity to talk with Mike O’Connell, Frito-Lay's National Director of Fleet Capability (pictured below with a Sprinter truck). I wanted to find out how the new fuel-efficient Sprinter route trucks I blogged about last year were performing for Frito-Lay and to learn more about the fleet team’s environmental sustainability efforts going forward.

"2009 was an outstanding year for fleet sustainability because we reduced total fuel consumption compared to last year,” Mike told me, as we walked around the convention floor. “This is a big accomplishment since we have one of the largest private truck fleets in the country. Achieving a five percent reduction really required a concerted effort across our entire fleet operation.” 

Mike told me that the fleet team started by embracing new technologies -- adding 1,200 Sprinter route trucks to the fleet system and implementing advanced diesel technology to realize further fuel efficiency and reduce emissions. In 2010, the Frito-Lay fleet team will continue investing in new fleet technologies with plans to buy an additional 860 Sprinter trucks and to begin testing Smith Electric Vehicles (pictured below) in some of the metropolitan areas we service.

Mike also explained that Frito-Lay has programs in place to help reduce emissions from the existing route trucks used to bring our products to stores across the country. "We train and certify our salespeople who drive the route trucks on how to conserve fuel while the truck is running -- idling properly, being conscious of acceleration and other techniques," Mike said.  "We're also constantly reevaluating truck routing to minimize miles driven, and there is an enhanced maintenance program in place at all sites to ensure tires are properly inflated and engines are running smoothly at all times."

Lastly, Mike told me the aerodynamics of Frito-Lay’s more than 1,200 “over-the-road” tractor trailers (big rigs) have been redesigned to improve fuel efficiency, and the teams have improved the routing of these trucks as well to reduce miles driven. 

One of the most exciting parts of attending the PepsiCo Fleet Convention was watching the enthusiasm of the more than 400 vendors and employees from around the country when talking about the next generation of ideas and technologies to improve sustainability and reduce costs with our fleet operations.  

With that kind of energy and commitment, I feel confident Mike and the Frito-Lay Fleet Capability team will continue to make progress with their environmental sustainability programs this year and beyond. 

Cheer for Your Favorite College Basketball Team While Enjoying Tostitos Ranch Nachos

Every year, my son, Brett, looks forward to March when he can get his fill of college basketball tournaments.  Since he and his wife love to entertain, the tournaments give them a great reason to throw a party. 

Apparently, my son and his wife are in good company. Stephanie Barr, Frito-Lay's Senior Manager of National Shopper Events and Sports Marketing (pictured left with her two sons), shared some research with me: More than 140 million people watch college basketball tournaments each year, and many of these fans also throw basketball parties to celebrate.

To help these college basketball fans prepare for their parties, this year Stephanie and her team created basketball snack displays in stores that feature the new Tostitos Dipping Strips, among other great Frito-Lay snacks. Dipping Strips are great with chunky dips, spreads and even nachos, which is why I recommended my son serve them at his party.

Recently, my wife, Janis, found a cookbook Frito-Lay published in 1999 to raise money for the United Way called "Chester Cooks! Favorite Recipes from Frito-Lay Technology." I feasted on this fun collection of recipes, and found one that would be perfect with Tostitos Dipping Strips and is a great recipe idea for college basketball get-togethers. I’ll be passing this recipe on to my son and hope you’ll try it out at your basketball parties too!

Tostitos Ranch Nachos

Prep Time: 20 minutes   Yield: 4 servings

• 3 whole chicken breasts, sliced into strips

• 1 can ranch-style beans

• 1 can cream of mushroom soup

• 1 can Rotel diced tomatoes

• 10 ounces Colby or Jack cheese, grated

• 1 medium-sized yellow onion, diced

• 1 package Tostitos Dipping Strips!

Stir fry the chicken for 5 - 7 minutes.  Add all other ingredients (holding two thirds of the cheese) to the pan and heat thoroughly.  Lay Tostitos Dipping Strips on a dinner plate. Spoon chicken mixture over the chips and top with remaining grated cheese.  Serve with additional chips as desired.

National Nutrition Month: What 'Nutrition from the Ground Up' Means at Frito-Lay

Today on Snack Chat, Danielle Dalheim, a Registered Dietitian and Nutrition Scientist with Frito-Lay, is back to share her thoughts on what National Nutrition Month, celebrated in March each year, means to her and to Frito-Lay.  Danielle joined Frito-Lay in 2007, after graduating from the University of Oklahoma, and plays an important role in the work we’re doing to enhance our products by using healthier ingredients and bringing better-for-you snacks to consumers.

Every year the American Dietetic Association (ADA) celebrates March as National Nutrition Month, during which Registered Dietitians (RD), like me, increase our focus on the importance of educating consumers about making better food choices and encouraging them to live healthy and active lifestyles. This year as part of National Nutrition Month, the ADA asked RDs what the phrase “nutrition from the ground up” means to us. This phrase resonates with me since it aligns well with Frito-Lay’s commitment to health and wellness and our history of developing products based on sound nutrition science and providing our consumers with the nutrition information they need to make healthier lifestyle choices.  So today, I’d like to share a couple specific ways in which Frito-Lay is accomplishing “nutrition from the ground up.” 

Adopting a ‘Better Oils’ Strategy:

Frito-Lay has long followed scientific recommendations to determine which oils we use to make our products. This approach often resulted in us making hallmark changes in our cooking processes to improve the health profile of our products -- well ahead of other food companies.

• In 2003, Frito-Lay was the first major food company to remove trans fats from its entire snack chip portfolio, converting the oil used to make Cheetos cheese flavored snacks and Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips to corn oil, a healthier oil.  Some of our snacks, like Lay’s potato chips and Fritos corn chips, never had trans fat in the first place.  Today, all of our chips contain 0 grams of trans fat per serving. 

• In 2006, we reduced the saturated fat in our potato chips by switching to sunflower oil. The healthier oils, like sunflower and corn oils, now used to make our chips contain 0 grams of trans fat and are higher in the “good” poly- and monounsaturated fats that have been proven to reduce LDL cholesterol and maintain or increase HDL cholesterol levels, which has been associated with a reduction in the risk of heart disease. 

Clearly Communicating Nutrition Information:

Frito-Lay recognizes the importance of clearly and transparently communicating with consumers about our products, which led to the introduction of key, on-package information to ensure that consumers are informed about our products. 

• Frito-Lay began full nutrition labeling in 1989, even before the 1992 FDA requirements.

• Prior to removing trans fat from our chips, we listed trans fat on the Nutrition Facts Panel more than two years prior to the 2006 FDA mandate.

• While most Frito-Lay snack chips are available in single-portion packaging, our small- and medium-sized packages include dual labeling to provide consumers with the nutritional information for the single serving and the entire package.

• Frito-Lay began voluntarily listing the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats on the Nutrition Facts Panel of many core products, which helps consumers more easily identify “good” heart-healthier unsaturated fats in our products. 

For more information on National Nutrition Month, please visit www.eatright.org/nnm. 

- Danielle

New Fritos Pie Remix Episode: Buffalo Chicken Fritos Pie!

A new episode of Fritos Pie Remix is now available: Buffalo Chicken Fritos Pie. Fritos Pie Remix is a new web-based series of cooking episodes featuring Frito-Lay Executive Chef Stephen Kalil and Fritos Corn Chips®. In each episode, Chef Stephen remixes the family-favorite dish, Fritos Chili Pie, using one or more extreme ingredients to create a whole new Fritos Pie experience. In this new episode, Chef Stephen uses hot sauce as the extreme ingredient.

Check out the Fritos Pie Remix Web site now to watch the remix episodes and learn how to "wow" your family and friends with some unique and tasty Fritos Pie recipes -- guaranteed to satisfy even extreme taste buds!  While you’re visiting the site, don’t forget to submit your own ideas for an extreme ingredient. You never know, Chef Stephen may use it in a future episode!

Below: Buffalo Chicken Fritos Pie prepared by Chef Stephen Kalil.