Has anyone else noticed the change in the taste and quality of foods since the pandemic? Last Thanksgiving I splurged and bought a package of store-brand chicken breasts, the kind with bones and skin. When I cut into it I noticed that the consistency was all wrong. Instead of the long muscle fibers I was used to, there were these round globs of cells. And while I hesitated to actually put a bite in my mouth, when I finally did, the meat had NO FLAVOR! I may as well have cooked up the packaging!
And it isn’t just chicken. Butter tastes awful and has a sort of strange oily aftertaste. Sauces are different. Everything packaged is sweeter. Sugar must be cheaper than vegetables and spices because I taste it in everything these days. I can live without packaged foods. I can even live without butter (though giving up toast was hard. I used to love toast!) But the last straw for me is what they have done to potato chips. There’s a potato chip crisis in America, folks! And I think we should speak up before the crispy snack goes the way of the dodo.
Lay’s has always been my go-to when it comes to potato chips. Granted, they’re terrible for you, but every now and again they lend something interesting to a sandwich. It’s probably the salt. No matter where you go in America, they used to taste pretty much the same. They touted their use of sunflower oil. They even put a big picture of one on the front of the package for a while. I’m all in on sunflowers. They were the first snack company to advertise on TV: Remember “Bet you can’t eat just one”?
Did you know that Lay’s potato chips started right here in Nashville, Tennessee in 1932? Herman Lay’s chips were made and packaged in the morning and he spent the rest of the day taking them around to stores and gas stations. He was quite the entrepreneur! In 1939 he bought Barrett Food Company and moved his operation to Atlanta. And in 1961 he merged with the Frito Company and the name became known as Frito Lay.
In 1965, Frito Lay joined the Pepsi-Cola Company. In 1975, the two companies became PepsiCo, the largest food and beverage company in the world. That’s where, I think, the trouble started. You know how quality can suffer when products get too far from the source of the founder. I can just hear the bigwigs at the company saying that they have to cut costs and increase profits for their shareholders. They have to use a cheaper potato, oil and salt. In their effort to cut costs, they’ve absolutely ruined the best potato chip in America!
And if you think you can just change brands to get a crisp, edible chip, don’t bother! All the other chip companies I’ve tried are using the same tiny, crappy, tough, flavorless potatoes as the Lay’s folks! PepsiCo would appear to have cornered the market in potato chips. It’s an epidemic!
The price of Frito Lay products has also skyrocketed since the pandemic. They’re charging a lot more but we’re getting a lot less. So, the way I see it, the only answer is to stop buying them. I’ll have to adapt and find a crispy snack that goes well with a turkey sandwich. Carrot sticks, anyone? How about some nice, crisp cucumber slices? Those will probably be better for us in the long run!
Bon appetit!