On March 14, we celebrate National Potato Chip Day. The potato chip is believed to have been invented by chef George Crump in 1853 at a resort in upstate New York. A customer at the restaurant in the resort complained twice that his fries were too thick. So Chef Crump took out his razor to make them super thin. Crump did this to spite the customer, but the customer ending up liking them much to the chef’s surprise.
For a long time, potato chips remained artisan and local, because they couldn’t keep fresh for too long. The chips were typically placed in a paper bag sealed with a paper clip. They would go stale in day. All of this changed thanks to one person.
During the Great Depression, Americans were trying to find cheap calories for the families to consume. Candy had seen a big boom, but the salty snack industry was barely on the radar. Only small local producers were offering snacks such as pretzels and popcorn. One company in Tennessee called the Barrett Snack Food Company and known for crackers and pretzels was struggling to keep its lights on. Then entered an employee named Herman Lay.
Herman Lay was a salesman and businessman who had trouble in the past year finding consistent work. A light bulb went off in his head when the Dust Bowl was taking place. Farmers were struggling to grow their usual crops as their top levels of soil were blowing away. Now potatoes and corn had become commodities. Potato prices decreased significantly and Herman discovered the then unknown snack of potato chips.
When the founder of the Barrett Snack Food Company passed away, Herman Lay offered to buy the company. He took out to a loan which was 12 times what his life savings were. Herman’s next challenge was to find a way to keep the potato chips fresh.
Herman Lay discovered a paper known as glassine, a smooth translucent paper which is resistant to moisture, dust and grass. Glassine had been used to preserve stamps and photographs. Herman worked with an engineer who designed a sealable bag.
During World War II, Herman Lay experienced trouble as the government was seizing all materials for military use and shutting down nonessential businesses, such as his. Herman was successfully able to lobby Congress to recognize potato chips as an essential food. He said they’re both non-perishable and readily available to eat should there be a blackout where you can’t cook. As sugar was rationed during WWII, candy prices went up. Salty snacks were now making headway into the profits of the candy industry.
Herman Lay was first selling his products only in the east, but eventually worked his way to get his potato chips available in the west. To expand sales, he introduced seasoned chips in the 1950s, starting with barbecue and adding on other flavors as time went on. As plastic bags became more common with packaging, they replaced the glassine bags.
We’ve seen many changes with potato chips from being artisan to mass produced, from being sold locally to nationally, from paper packaging to plastic, and from one flavor to many. Sadly, we’ve also seen them go from using real ingredients to denatured ingredients. One of the worst changes to potato chips was the use of seed oils such as canola, corn, and soybean oil. Another problem was non-organic ingredients sprayed with multiple pesticides. The good news is over the past decade, there’s been a huge growth in chips using clean ingredients again. These products use healthy oils including avocado, coconut, and palm oil and fats such as beef tallow.
The manufacturers are responsible about the other ingredients they source too. Some of the companies give us better versions of the classic potato chips. Others do more contemporary takes using sweet potatoes and heirloom potatoes to come up with twists on the traditional potato chips.
In alphabetical order, here are the 14 best potato chips fried in healthy oils and fats:
Beefy’s Own
The origin of Beefy’s Own begins in 2020 when the founder’s family decided improve their health and commit to a holistic animal based diet. This meant cutting out seeds oils, which would unfortunately also meant no potato chips. So they decided to make their own, using tallow. They then shared the chips online and realized there was large demand for tallow fried potato chips. In 2022, Beefy’s Own made the chips in small batch. When 2023 came around, they found a dedicated production facility in order to sell their products nationwide. The flavors of Beefy’s Own are sea salt, salt n’ vinegar, and salt n’ pepper.
Boulder Canyon
In 1994, brothers John and Mark Maggio founded Boulder Canyon to create snacks which were both healthy and delicious. The two learned how to make potato chips and soon started frying them in better oils, such as avocado oil. Boulder Canyon’s potato chips come in both ridged and thin textures and in the flavors of sea salt, malt vinegar and sea salt, cheddar sour cream, jalapeño, and limited edition offerings.
FC Snacks
FC Snacks was formed in 2007 as a family owned importer and distributor of natural snacks. They support local farmers, many of whom are direct descendants of families who first settled in the lands. Some of them even came before the Spanish conquest. FC Snacks is also involved in an initiative to engage local manufacturers in bringing back endemic plants and trees to help restore the diversity of native species. There are three labels for FC Snacks: Andean Gourmet, Samai, and Shegraa. All of the brands use palm olein. Their Andean Gourmet label has a sweet potato option.
Good Health
Good Health prides themselves on innovative ingredients and great tasting tasting flavors. Their slogan is “Enjoy Being Good”. Good Health makes a number of avocado and olive oil potato chip flavors from sea salt to lime ranch to barbecue.
Hardbite
Originating in British Columbia, the folks at Hardbite were determined to handcraft an all natural chip which tasted as good as the big brands but didn’t have any artificial flavors or preservatives. They experimented with cooking them until they got the perfect crunch, taste, and flavor. Along with using all natural ingredients, they were advocates of non-GMO before the movement was well known. Hardbite also buys the highest quality potatoes from like-minded farmers. As the company has grown, its product line has grown too. More recently, Hardbite introduced its potato chips cooked in avocado oil, coming in the flavors of apple cider vinegar, black truffle sea salt, spicy honey dijon, and sweet ghost pepper.
Jackson’s Chips
The story of Jackson’s Chips starts with the Megan and Scott Reamers’ son Jackson getting diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder. After trying various methods to improve his health and quality of life, they found that a high fat low carb diet worked the best. The entire family began living a HFLC lifestyle, but they missed eating snack foods. So they attempted cooking locally sourced and thinly sliced sweet potatoes over their stovetop. They loved how the sweet potato chips tasted. Their son Jackson’s legacy lives on through the chips he inspired and the company. Jackson’s Chips has regular potato chips in sea salt variety and sweet potato chips fried in avocado oil in the flavors of sea salt, spicy jalapeño, habanero nacho, and cheddar & sour cream.
Kettle Brand
Cameron Healy founded Kettle Brand in 1978 with the vision of going the extra mile to make great tasting real foods available to everybody. At the beginning, Cameron was selling the food out of the back of his van. 40 years later, Kettle Brand continues with its effort to be bold with practices such as using whole potatoes cut extra thick. Recently, they also began offering avocado oil potato chips in the varieties of sea salt pink peppercorn, apple cider vinegar, and special sauce.
Kiwa
Kiwa founder Martin Acosta had a calling to change the world. At the beginning, he had just five employees and basic plantain chip machinery, but he also had a room filled with dreams. It took the company a year and a half to figure out what exactly they were going to do, to put the basics of the business into practice, and to get selling. In 2009, Kiwa introduced their first product, the vegetable chips mix. Presently, Kiwa is a global leader with their vegetable chips sold in over 30 countries. They take part in the Direct Trade program. This program connects farmers to manufacturers, building long term trusting relationships between the two sides, guaranteeing better working conditions, technical support, and a higher pay for the farmers. Kiwa has also shifted from its traditional farming practices to regenerative agriculture. They work directly with farmers in eight of Ecuador’s 24 provinces and northern regions of Peru. Kiwa’s offerings are all cooked in palm and have a Native Andean potato chip choice.
Jans
Since 1998, Jans Enterprises‘ mission has been to improve people’s quality of life by providing them with better food products. Their product line consists of everything from beverages to dairy products to desserts to chips. Among Jans’ chips are organic yellow and purple sweet potato chips fried in coconut oil.
Roots Potato Chips
Roots Potato Chips‘s mission statement is to source the best ingredients, healthier oils, and farm fresh potatoes while being transparent at every stage. Their Idaho grown potatoes use methods of regenerative agriculture, including cover crops, pollination, crop rotation, soil health, composting, and animal integration. They’re certified regenerative by the Soil & Climate Initiative. Roots reduces its food waste by using the entire potatoes, skin and all. They’re also certified plastic neutral by rePurpose as they support global waste recovery projects to fund the recovery of the same amount of plastic waste as their footprint while supporting waste workers. They include a QR code to learn about the farmer where the potatoes came from in that specific bag. Roots’ avocado oil fried potato chips are available the flavors of sea salt, barbecue, sea salt & vinegar, and purple potatoes with sea salt.
Rosie’s Chips
Being originally from Central Pennsylvania, the potato chip capital of the world, Rosie’s Chips began with a vision of introducing to the world an all natural potato chip using the simple three ingredients of potatoes, grass fed & finished beef tallow, and microplastic free sea salt. The chips are kettle cooked in small batches. The name Rosie’s Chips comes from 102-year-old Central Pennsylvania icon Rose Adams, who raised the founders’ family and was known for her delicious comfort foods and snacks.
Siete
Siete‘s formation can be traced to founder Veronica Garza’s family of seven (or siete in Spanish) helping her overcome numerous health challenges. As a teen, Veronica was diagnosed with multiple autoimmune conditions which made her fatigued, overweight, and depressed. So her family began exercising and joined her in following a low-inflammation, grain free diet. Being a Mexican American family in South Texas, using lettuce in place of the flour and corn tortillas for tacos and fajitas wasn’t cutting it. Veronica began making grain free tortillas. When her Grandmother Campos told her that the grain free tortillas tasted better than the flour tortillas her grandmother had been making for decades, Veronica knew she had a winning product she could sell on the market. The first products were tortillas and tortilla chips made from cassava flour and fried in avocado oil. Siete has since delved into avocado oil potato chips available in the flavors of sea salt, fuego, queso, sea salt & vinegar, chipotle BBQ, chile lime and the new spicy dill pickle.
Torres
Founder Manuel Torres, who opened a potato chip stand with his wife Ángeles Medel in Premià de Mar, Spain in 1969. The Torres business soon grew and their children moved the production of the chips to Premià de Dalt while still operating the stand. In 1995, in order to cater to increasing demands, they relocated to their current facilities in Dosrius. In 2012, the Torres Selecta Range was introduced. This line included their 100% extra virgin olive oil potato chips. Torres will soon be launching avocado oil chips.
Vandy
Unsatisfied with all of the chips on the market, Ancient Crunch founder Steven A. set out to create a chips with two simple requirements. First, the corn must be naturally grown and the tortillas must be naturally prepared. Second, the tortillas need to be free of any inflammatory seed oils. So he came up with MASA, the first tortilla chips made with both organic corn and grass fed tallow. After MASA, Steve followed up Vandy, potato chips cooked with out seed oils, pesticides, or other additives. He uses the three basic ingredients of potatoes grown naturally and free of CIPC, grass fed & finished tallow, and unrefined sea salt. Vandy comes in original and smokehouse, their take on the rich smokey flavors or Texas and Carolina barbecue.