Lay's (, ) is a brand of

potato chips Potato chips (North American English and Australian English; often just chip) or crisp (British English and Hiberno-English) are thin slices of potato (or a thin deposit of potato paste) that has been deep frying, deep fried, baking, baked, ...

with different flavors, as well as the name of the company that founded the chip brand in the United States. The brand is also referred to as Frito-Lay, as both Lay's and Fritos are brands sold by the

Frito-Lay Frito-Lay, Inc. (; ) is an American food company that manufactures, markets, and sells snack foods. It began in the early 1930s as two companies, Fritos, the Frito Company and Lay's, H.W. Lay & Company, that merged in 1961. Frito-Lay itself merg ...

company, which has been a wholly owned subsidiary of

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...

since 1965. Frito-Lay primarily uses the brand name "Lay's" in the United States and Canada, and uses other brand names in some other countries, such as Walkers in the UK and Ireland, and Smith's in Australia.

History

In 1932, salesman Herman Lay opened a

snack food A snack is a small portion of Human food, food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including Food packaging, packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at ho ...

operation in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. In 1938, he purchased the

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

-based potato manufacturer "Barrett Food Company", renaming it "H.W. Lay Lingo & Company". Lay crisscrossed the

southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

, selling the product from the trunk of his car. In 1961, the Frito Company, founded by Charles E. Doolin, merged with Lay’s, forming Frito-Lay Inc., a snack food giant with combined sales of over $127 million annually, which was then the highest sales revenue earned by any manufacturer. Shortly thereafter, Lay's introduced what became its best-known slogan: "betcha can't eat just one". Sales of the chips became international, with marketing assisted by a number of celebrity endorsers. Annual revenues for Frito-Lay exceeded $180 million by 1965, when the company had more than 8,000 employees and 46 manufacturing plants. In 1965, Frito-Lay merged with the Pepsi-Cola Company to form

, Inc. In 1991, the company introduced a new formulation of their chip that was crisper and kept fresher longer. Shortly thereafter, the company introduced the "Wavy Lay's" products to grocery shelves, with a national rollout in 1994. In the mid- to late 1990s, Lay's introduced a lower-

calorie The calorie is a unit of energy that originated from the caloric theory of heat. The large calorie, food calorie, dietary calorie, kilocalorie, or kilogram calorie is defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one liter o ...

baked Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but it can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. Bread is the most commonly baked item, but many other types of food can also be baked. Heat is gradually t ...

variety, and a fat-free variety ( Lay's WOW chips) that contained the

fat substitute A fat substitute is a food product with the same functions, stability, physical, and chemical characteristics as regular fat, with fewer calories per gram than fat. They are utilized in the production of low fat and low calorie foods. Background Fa ...

olestra Olestra (also known by its brand name Olean) is a fat substitute food additive that adds no metabolizable calories to products. It has been used in the preparation of otherwise high-fat foods, thereby lowering or eliminating their fat content. ...

. In the 2000s, the company introduced “kettle-cooked” varieties, as well as a more highly processed variety (

Lay's Stax Lay's Stax is a potato chip snack food produced by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo."Pringles vs Stax"
(Septembe ...

) that was intended to compete with

Pringles Pringles is an American brand of stackable potato-based chips invented by Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1968 and marketed as "Pringle's Newfangled Potato Chips". It is technically considered an Extruded food, extruded snack because of the manufac ...

, and several differently flavored varieties. In 2012, Frito-Lay products comprised 59% of the United States savory snack-food market. In April 2019,

's Indian subsidiary sued four farmers in Gujarat, India for copyright infringement, claiming they were growing a variety of potatoes trademarked by the company for exclusive use in its Lay's potato chips. Two years later, the ruling was done in the farmers' favour under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001.

International branding

Frito-Lay primarily uses the brand name "Lay's" in the United States, and uses other brand names in some other countries, including Walkers (UK and Ireland); Smith's (Australia); Chipsy (Egypt and the West Balkans); Tapuchips (Israel); Margarita (Colombia); and

Sabritas Sabritas, S. de R.L. de C.V. is a Mexican snack company owned by PepsiCo. They are best known for manufacturing chips, Sabritas is the Mexican name of Lays, similar to Margaritas in Colombia or Walkers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Histo ...

(Mexico).

Nutritional information

As with most snack foods, the Lay's brands contain very few vitamins and minerals in any variety. At ten percent of the daily requirement per serving,

vitamin C Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits, berries and vegetables. It is also a generic prescription medication and in some countries is sold as a non-prescription di ...

is the highest. Salt content is particularly high, with a serving containing as much as 380 mg of sodium. A one-ounce (28 gram) serving of Lay's regular potato chips has 160

s, and contains ten grams of

fat In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specif ...

, with one gram of

saturated fat A saturated fat is a type of fat in which the fatty acid chains have all single bonds between the carbon atoms. A fat known as a glyceride is made of two kinds of smaller molecules: a short glycerol backbone, and fatty acids that each cont ...

. Kettle-cooked brands have seven to eight grams of fat and one gram of saturated fat, and are 140 calories. Lay's Natural has nine grams of fat, two grams of saturated fat and 150 calories. Stax chips typically contain ten grams of fat, 2.5 grams saturated fat, and are 160 calories per serving. Wavy Lay's are identical to the regular brand, except for a half-gram less of saturated fat in some combinations. Now the various brands do not contain any

trans fat Trans fat is a type of unsaturated fat that occurs in foods. Small amounts of trans fats occur naturally, but large amounts are found in some processed foods made with partially hydrogenated oils. Because consumption of trans fats is associated ...

s. A 50 gram serving of Lay's BarBQ chips contains 270 calories, and 17 grams of fat. It also contains 270 mg of sodium, and 15% of the daily recommended dose of

Vitamin C Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits, berries and vegetables. It is also a generic prescription medication and in some countries is sold as a non-prescription di ...

. The baked variety, introduced in the mid 1990s, feature 1.5 grams of fat per one ounce serving, and have no saturated fat. Each serving has 110 to 120 calories. Lay's Light servings are 75 calories per ounce and have no fat. Lay's Classic Potato chips were cooked in hydrogenated oil until 2003. In 2024, according to ET, in the United States the chips are made with sunflower, corn and/or canola oil.

International

Flavors

References

External links

* {{Frito Lay Frito-Lay brands Brand name potato chips and crisps Products introduced in 1932