When a product is air fried, one expects it to have fewer calories. Such doesn’t seem to be the case, however, with Kettle Chips.
Here is the regular variety of Kettle chips. It has 140 calories per ounce and nine grams of fat.
Now here is the “air fried” Kettle chips.
*MOUSE PRINT:
This variety says “air fried” in huge letters, but in small type that some people might miss, it says “kettle cooked, air finished.” What? The chips are really deep-fat fried, but then blown dry, so to speak?
That alone could be misleading, and so the company was just sued in March by a consumer.
But look closer, comparing the two nutrition labels. The air-fried product says 30% less fat than the regular version, and sure enough, it has six grams of fat per ounce versus nine grams of fat. But how is it possible that the bag with less fat has the exact same amount of calories per ounce? The ingredients in both products seem to be in the same order of predominance.
We asked Campbell’s Soup, the maker of Kettle chips, for an explanation. They did not reply.
Now it is your turn. What could explain that there is no change in calories in the air-fried product despite having one-third less fat?
If you look at the details the reduction in fat is offset by an increase in carbohydrates per serving
Yes, but one gram of fat is 9 calories, whereas one gram of carbohydrate is 4 calories. So one would presume that the 3-gram migration would save 15 calories, which isn’t reflected on the label.
The label is just wrong, and my pure speculation is that perhaps it’s related to the “servings per container” number — they rounded down the 8.5 servings to 8, but rounded up the 6.5 servings to 7.
Campbell’s needs a mathematician on staff. Or at least someone who scored a 500 on the math portion of the SAT.
Not an answer to your question, but it appears “shrinkflation” as also occurred. The newer bag is smaller – 6.5 oz. compared to 8.5 oz.
Below is a summary of the calories comparing Kettle Brand Sea Salt & Vinegar vs. Air Fried Potato Chips. Note that both serving sizes are the same (28g) even though the “About” sizes (8 vs 7) are different. Calorie calculations here are based on typically cited values (fat 9/g, carbohydrates 4/g and protein 4/g) which are probably averages and rounded to a whole number. Note that fiber carbohydrate (mostly cellulose) is not digestible so its calorie contribution is zero. The remaining calories for the carbohydrate total come from sugars (0 for both of these chips, as indicated on the label) and polysaccharides (mostly starch). I would guess that the total calories per serving for the listed value for the Air Fried chips is a careless error. Too bad, because if it were accurately indicated (per my calculations at 130) it would have less fat and fewer calories than the regular chips (141), as expected. Then again, maybe all the numbers are bogus.
Salt & Vinegar Air Fried
g calories g calories
Fat 9 81 6 54
Fiber 2 0 1 0
Starch 13 52 17 68
Protein 2 8 2 8
Total 141 130
Sorry Phil and readers… charts don’t render properly in plain proportional text.
Maybe it’s because one contains Distilled White Vinegar while the other contains White Distilled Vinegar! 🙂
Seriously, though — I do doubt that these nutrition statements are always (or ever?) accurate. I have here some jellied candies whose Nutrition Facts state:
Total Carbohydrate 23g…..8%
….Total Sugars 18g
includes 18g Added Sugars…36%
Unless cornstarch/food starch modified (3rd/4th ingredient)s could add 5g of carbs to every 18g of sugars, how do we get 23g of carbs? And if the sugar carbs alone are 36% of DV then how can Total Carbs be only 8%?
Also does anyone know why they call it “Added Sugars” when there is no sugar in the product other than sugar and corn syrup (1st/2nd ingredients)???
When I eat from the bag, these chips leave a greasy film on my fingers. Comparing them to Lay’s Kettle Chips, not much grease but some salt residue. I’ve stopped buying Kettle Brand chips.
Potato chips are no longer as good as they commonly were just a few years ago. It is very difficult to find good-tasting chips like I grew up with. I used to buy chips from a chip company in Pennsylvania by mail until they suddenly changed. I asked why and was told the government had recently mandated some new rules on the oil(s) used and thus rendered the product—to me, at least—not worth the money anymore.
I have, tho found a newcomer to my area that tastes pretty good—Cape Cod kettle cooked chips. Seems they are attempting to give Lays chips some competition and while they are not as good as the chips were years ago, at least they are better than the common brands in most stores.
Yes I bought groceries at Walmart during the covid and my bill (s) were over $500.00. Buying the same items as opposed to before covid. Sorry I didn’t save the receipts.