Lay's WOW! Chips

by Frito-Lay

1998 – 2004 GONE FOREVER

Gone — the WOW! name was retired in 2004 when the line became Light, and olestra disappeared from Frito-Lay products altogether in 2016. Nothing has carried the WOW! branding since, and nobody has organized a petition to bring it back.

Fat-free chips made with olestra, a synthetic fat the human body cannot absorb, sold under the Lay's, Ruffles, Doritos and Tostitos names. Americans bought $400 million worth in the first year and then, collectively, reconsidered.

🧾 One more thingThe trouble was what olestra did on the way out — cramping and worse, serious enough that the FDA required a warning label on the bag for several years. Sales halved by 2000, Frito-Lay quietly rebranded the line as 'Light' in 2004 while keeping the olestra in it, and only removed the ingredient entirely in 2016.

Filed under: Snacks & Chips · the ’90s

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