21 Nov 2013 FRITO LAY

21 Nov 2013 FRITO LAY

Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Introduction 5 Methods for Evaluating Options 6 Results of the Evaluation 6 Amount of Chips per Serving Size 6 Calories per Serving of Chips 7 Fat Content per Serving of Chips 8 Sodium Content per Serving 8 Taste of Each Bag of Chips 9 Conclusions 10

Introduction

Everyday consumers face decisions that affect their well-being for the rest of their lives. These decisions surround everyday life for the average human being, one of the most important decisions being their diet.

The consumers our feasibility report is aimed at are college students who are looking for the healthiest original potato chip option that Lay’s currently has available.

To inform the consumer of the most appropriate way to sustain a healthy diet would take much more than this report covers, however we put together a list of three classic potato chip varieties offered by Lay’s. Many different potato chips flood the market these days and we feel that it is our job to inform the masses of the tastiest and healthiest chips on the market to date. Each day, consumers buy potato chips that contain large amounts of calories and fat. We are here to let the consumers know that they can consume great tasting potato chips without consuming all the fat.

We chose to study the healthiest original potato chip made by Lay’s. We chose to use the only three original flavor potato chips offered by Lay’s. We chose to go with Lay’s brand potato chips because Lay’s company is a popular snack food maker and Lay’s chips are available at most grocery stores and gas stations surrounding campus. To show the best options available to the consumer we have compared the following three types of Lay’s potato chips:

* Lay’s Classic Potato Chips * Lay’s Baked Original Potato Chips * Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chips

Methods for Evaluating Options

Lay’s advertises their Baked and Kettle Cooked potato chips as being a healthier alternative to normal potato chips and we would like to test Lay’s company claim. We measured each of the following:

• Amount of chips per serving
• Calories
• Fat content
• Sodium
• Taste

To measure the amount of chips per serving, calories, fat content and sodium in each of the three types of chips we used the nutrition information on the Lay’s website.

To measure the taste preference of each chip we offered a taste test to students on campus and have the students rate each test sample on a scale of 1 – 3, 1 being least favorite and 3 being most favorite. We also asked for feedback as to why they made their decision. The chip with the highest score is the better tasting of the three chips and the chip with the lowest score is the worse tasting chip.

Results of the Evaluation

We got our results by using the five criteria of amount of chips per serving, calories, fat content, sodium, and taste of a particular bag of chips. We compiled these results below.

Amount of Chips per Serving Size

Although serving sizes are equal to 1 ounce of chips, the number of chips varied by the types of chips as follows. The differences can be seen on the following page (Figure 1).

* Lay’s Classic Potato Chips These chips are possibly one of the more popular chips considering they have been around the longest when compared to other styles of potato chips. The serving size of Lay’s Classic Potato Chips is 36 chips.

* Lay’s Original Baked Potato Chips
This style of chip is new when compared to the previous options. This variety of chip is less greasy than the usually potato chip. The serving size of Lay’s Original Baked Potato Chips is 15 chips.

* Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chips
These chips are the extra crunchy new favorite of sandwich shops and deli restaurants. The serving size of Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chips is 16 chips.

Figure 1

Figure 1

Based on chips per serving size, Lay’s Original gives the consumer approximately 20 more chips per serving. The serving sizes for Baked Lay’s and Lay’s Kettle Cooked were minimally different.

Calories per Serving of Chips

The calories of each serving of the chips are below and in visual form in (Figure 2).

* Lay’s Classic Potato chips:
280 calories

* Lay’s Original Baked Potato Chips:
120 calories

* Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chips:
160 calories

Figure 2

Figure 2

Based on calories per serving size, Baked Lay’s is a better choice for consumers who are concerned with counting calories. Lay’s Kettle Cooked is not far behind, but Lay’s Original has more than double the calories of Baked Lay’s.

Fat Content per Serving of Chips

The fat content of each serving of the chips are below and in visual form in (Figure 3).

* Lay’s Classic Potato Chips:
18 grams

* Lay’s Original Baked Potato Chips:
2 grams

* Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chips:
9 grams

Figure 3

Figure 3

Based on fat content per serving size, Baked Lay’s the best choice. Lay’s Kettle Cooked has more than four times the amount of fat of Baked Lay’s, while Lay’s Original has nine times more fat when compared to Baked Lay’s.

Sodium Content per Serving

The sodium content of each serving of the chips are below and in visual form in (Figure 4) on the following page.

* Lay’s Classic Potato chips
170 milligrams

* Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chips
135 milligrams

* Lay’s Original Baked Potato Chips
90 milligrams

Figure 4

Figure 4

Based on sodium alone, the clear winner was Lay’s Kettle Cooked with only 90 mg of sodium per serving. The next lowest was Baked Lay’s with only 135 mg, followed by Lay’s original with 170 mg of sodium per serving.

Taste of Each Bag of Chips

We conducted our taste test with students from campus and gathered the following results shown in (Figure 5).
Figure 5

Figure 5

* Lay’s Classic Potato chips
According to the tests, Lay’s Classic Potato Chips were the consumers’ favorite. Consumers liked the original taste compared to the other two chip options, and preferred the saltiness of Lay’s Classic Potato Chips overall.

* Lay’s Original Baked Potato Chips
Baked chips came in second because people said that it was sweeter and liked the fact that it was not as salty or greasy in their hands and like the idea of eating healthy. Some did not like them because they disliked the lack of regular potato chips taste.

* Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chips
Consumers thought the Lay’s Kettle Cooked Potato Chip were thicker, more salty, and had an oddly different taste from an original potato chip.

Conclusions

Based on the conducted tests and the consumer reactions to taste, we've concluded the following results: The best tasting potato chip is Lay’s Classic Potato Chip. The second favorite is Lay’s Original Baked Potato Chip, followed by Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chip. Consumers enjoyed Lay’s Classic Potato Chip because consumers enjoyed the taste, the crunch, and the saltiness. Consumers that liked Lay’s Original Baked Potato Chip liked that they were baked, tasted less salty, and, based on nutrition facts, had less calories and fat content. Consumers that did not like Lay’s Original Baked Potato Chip did not like how the baked chips looked, and that the baked chips were not very salty. Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chips weren’t favored by many consumers because the kettle cooked chips were thicker, tasted more salty, and had a different taste from an original potato chip. Consumers that enjoyed Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chips like the kettle cooked for those same reasons.

Overall, based on calories, and fat content of the three chips, Lay’s Original Baked Potato Chips are the best choice. Lay’s Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chips have the smallest amount of sodium content per serving size, but the kettle cooked chips received the lowest score on our taste test. Based on overall taste and consumer preference, Lay’s Classic Potato Chip received the highest score on our taste test and the classic potato chip is most preferred by consumers.