eel and flavor of fat-rich potato chips. Consumer Reports (1996), p. 6 said its experiments showed it "tasted pretty respectable" (1996, Olestra: still, p. 6). An ounce of regular potato chips contains 75-150 calories and up to 10 grams of fat. An ounce of potato chips containing olestra has only 70 calories and no fat (Olestra: still, 1996, p. 50 and chart; Olestra: just, 1996, p. 50). Raspberry (1996, p. A19) says that "olestra is a no-fat fat that can put the taste, but not the calories, back in chips."
Olestra, which has been approved for use in all savory snacks, can be used in other snack products, such as corn chips, tortilla chips, cheese curls, Ritz crackers and in cooking oil. In a nation pre-occupied with the problem of obesity, olestra, says Narisetti (P&G is ready, 1996, p. B6), is P&G's "most promising new product in decades." According to Shapiro (1996, p. 60), "'healthy' junk-food is the fastest growing segment of the $15 billion per annum snack food industry." Sales of potato chips increased two and one half percent in the United States in 1995 but sales of potato chips with low fat substitutes doubled (Frank & Narisetti, 1996, p. A3). In test markets, potato chips with olestra were sold for 60-180 percent higher prices than regular potato chips (Olestra: still, 1996, p. 6).
Competition among potato chips retailers to gain rights to purchase olestra potato chips under their brand name has been intense. The successful bidder in that competition was Frito-Lay, which agreed to invest toward the $160 million cost of a new P&G plant to manufacture the product in Cincinnati. Under its deal with Frito-Lay, P&G reserved the right to market olestra under its own brand name Olean in its Pringle potato chips and to license others to make and sell non-potato chip food products containing olestra (Frank & Narisetti, 1996, p. A 19). No one knows whether the controversy over the adverse health effects of olestra and the sale...