Frito Lay trying to "de-junk" junk food

[Toliver]

"Taking the Junk Out of Junk Food"

....with the recent launch of Frito's Flat Earth line of baked fruit and vegetable crisps ("one-half serving of real vegetables in every ounce"), the company is now the nation's largest buyer of pumpkin, a big ingredient in the snack.

It's all part of Frito-Lay's attempt to secure its financial future by creating the ultimate oxymoron: healthy junk food.

The article also states that they wanted to switch to sunflower oil in their products but there wasn't a source that could provide the volume they needed. It's not stated but it's sort of implied in the article that they were able to persuade farmers to grow sunflowers and provide a steady source of the oil.

The trend for creating more nutritous snacks seems to be benefitting not only the consumer but growers and suppliers, as well.

Is anyone currently in a test market for the Flat Earth line of products?

[GlorifiedRice]

I bought the berry ones, they were like eating crispy oily fruit roll ups

[MarketStEl]

Flat Earth crisps have been available in the Philadelphia area since roughly March of this year.

I've tried two of the veggie varieties, but none of the fruit ones yet. The sun-dried tomato flavored crisps are all right; the cheddar flavored ones aren't cheesy enough for my taste.

Both have a taste I would characterize as sweet potatoey.

[Misa]

I like the cheddar ones - they're just cheesy enough, but not overtly so. The apple one is pretty good. I'd like to try the sun-dried tomato ones, but they only have them in large bags around here and my husband doesn't like sun-dried tomato, so I haven't done that yet.