Why the last Pringles Chip doesn't crack while shipping

interestingengineering.com

11 points·TheChetan··6 comments

I once met with the former chief engineer of Pringles. (This was years after he'd moved on and was working for a consulting company we ended up hiring to do some work for us). He was a food engineer. He really enjoyed his time on that project and didn't mind that his employer had him talk about his time there when prospective customers showed up.

Actually until meeting him I hadn't really understood that "food engineer" was a job and how complex it was. Just spraying sugary cereals with lacquer to keep them from clumping in the box is a complex engineering task combining designing manufacturing equipment and designing a formulation that can be used. Real systems engineering.

I totally recommend various "How it's made" shows, available on youtube. Eg, sprinkles, jelly beans, and of course other industrial processes. youcar channel has some of those for car industry. Mesmerizing for both large and small children (in my case me and my daughter).

I’ll second your recommendation for “How it's made". Great show.

Click through to the references which are even better articles.

Including this one about avoiding junk food tax by inventing a new kind of junk food http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7490346.stm

But it does :(

This confused me too, because the bottom few chips are always broken. Often the top chip or two as well.

Lays usually are all whole for me, which I've found interesting.

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