I was wondering when Pringles were first released because I had been snacking on some and was looking at the packaging. It didn't say when it was established, just that it was owned by Kelloggs.
It was released in 1968 by Procter & Gamble in America. I think it was Indiana? In around 2012, it was bought by Kelloggs (well, Kellanova, of which Kelloggs is a branch of). But then Mars bought Kellanova just last year, 2024, so I guess Pringles belong to Mars now, as well as Kelloggs even though the owner is still marked as Kellanova. Also Pringles are sold in around 140 countries and are in the top 5 or 10 of the most popular crisps.
But then I started wondering if they're classed as crisps or not, seeing as they're made from dehydrated potato rather than slices of potato. Turns out there was a whole big fiasco in 1975 where, after a few years of other crisp brands saying they couldn't be counted as actual crisps since they weren't potato slices, the FDA stepped in and made a statement on how they weren't proper crisps or something.
Anyway, it got worse in 2008 when, to try and avoid the crisp tax in, I think the UK (don't quote me on that), Procter and Gamble tried to claim that they were biscuits, since the process of making them is "more akin to making biscuits and cakes than actual potato crisps" (<- not a direct quote). I'd never even heard of pringles being thought of as biscuits until reading up on it a few hours ago. Because they're made from a dehydrated potato dough, the company argued that they should be exempt from the crisp tax because they're basically biscuits. They didn't win that case, as Pringles literally aren't biscuits and everyone agreed.
I'm pretty sure they're classified as "crisps" but not the meaning of "crisps" used in Ireland and Britain, but "crisps" as in they're not "chips" with the American meaning.
TLDR I read up on Pringles and need to get a life
