"fad" news and stories

Potatoes are the most popular vegetable in the US and most of them are eaten in some fried form, such as potato chips or french fries. One medium potato represents one of the five servings of vegetables that you are supposed to eat every day, and it doesn't take many french fries to reach the size of a single potato. Because of this, it is not impressive to hear that companies like Frito-Lay and Kraft want to add vegetable-based chips and snacks to their product lines. The potato chips are already vegetable-based!

Adding dehydrated vegetables to snacks like Roasted Vegetable Ritz Crackers is just a way of getting consumers to buy more by capitalizing on a trend for an increased awareness for healthy eating. This doesn't mean that people are necessarily eating healthier, but they think that they are/should be. They will opt for the chip that has some additional "vegetables" in it because it sounds like it might be healthier, regardless of whether it actually is. One trend tracking company said "this may replace the whole-grain fad."

And is there anything behind it? Probably not. A fried chip is still not health food, regardless of whether the chip is potato or carrot. And as for adding bits of veggies to other foodstuffs, nutritionist Cynthia Lair explained the benefits - or lack thereof - by saying "once you pulverize and powder vegetables, there's not much left."

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Last year, a product called Flavor Spray was picked as one of the top five food innovations of the year by Time magazine. At the time, I didn't realize it was going to catch on in such a big way, but now other companies are introducing flavored spray-on products in an astounding variety of flavors. Besides the  root beer or french fry sprays (yes, they're working on a french fry flavor at the moment) from Flavor Spray, there are butter sprays, salad dressing sprays, candy sprays and even pet food sprays. The company that makes the TooTarts Sour Blast candy spray is designing a candy spray, to be released next year, to help "trick" kids into eating their vegetables.

Some spray-able products seem useful, like the butter and salad sprays that would allow for even distribution of flavor over corn on the cob or a big plate of salad. But french fry flavor? Mochaccino flavor?

I can't see the trend for the more exotic and less practical flavors lasting for an extended period of time, unlike the dressings and sprays of olive or canola oil that can be used for cooking. But what do I know - I still uses spices to flavor my foods.

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