Composition of chips. Are there potatoes in potato chips

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Chips are often seen on supermarket shelves, and so many people buy them as a snack without thinking about what the product consists of and whether it is safe for he alth to eat. It is believed that chips are only fried potato slices, but is it really?

Composition

What is in chips? If you pick up a mid-range package in a supermarket, you can see the following composition: potatoes, vegetable oil, flavor and aroma enhancer, yeast, sugar, spices, stabilizer and dye. Manufacturers can also add flavorings, additives and powders, such as bacon or sour cream, to give the product a characteristic taste. However, along with traditional types of chips, you can also find those that should not be called chips, but a potato-wheat snack, since they contain up to 40% of the corresponding vegetable, and they are mostly made from flour and starch, which are otherwise called potato powder.

What are chips actually made of?

What are chips made of? Most often, to reduce the cost of the product, its basisis flour and soy starch, which is made from genetically modified soybeans. These ingredients are mixed and thin plates are made from them, which are then fried in boiling vegetable oil. At the same time, it should be noted that chips can also be made from potatoes, but this does not mean that it is useful, since in order to avoid damage to tubers by pests, only hemodified potatoes are used, which are stored for a long time and have the correct even shape. The harm of products with GMOs has been proven, they cause infertility and cancer.

Harmful additives in chips

Unfortunately, those people who believe that chips are not more harmful than ordinary potatoes will be very disappointed, as they contain a lot of additives that are detrimental to he alth.

What is in chips? In addition to flavors, stabilizers and colors, it is monosodium glutamate, which makes the chips seem incredibly tasty. The main task of the additive is to stimulate the receptors so that the taste of food seems richer and brighter. Therefore, if you eat ordinary meat without a lot of spices after the chips, it will seem bland and uns alted.

Monosodium glutamate is a man-made additive and is therefore considered harmful to the body, because it is addictive by causing excitement in the brain (which is why consumers quickly get used to some type of product and give it preference). If a person often consumes products with monosodium glutamate, he may develop allergies, bronchial asthma and diseasesdigestive system (gastritis, ulcers, etc.).

Vegetable oil or hydrogenated fat?

What chips are made of, we have already found out. What are they fried on? According to the technology for making chips, you need to fry pieces of potatoes in vegetable oil. As you know, good quality oil from sunflower seeds is very expensive, therefore it is most often replaced with cheap analogues - hydrogenated fat, which does not burn during frying and is stored for a long time, which means it is more profitable for use in production.

Cheap fats do not contain those vitamins that are in vegetable oil, therefore they are absolutely useless, but at the same time they have a high calorie content, making chips a “cholesterol bomb”, which causes blockage of blood vessels. If they are eaten very often, diseases of the cardiovascular and digestive systems may appear. It is possible that cheap fats are one of the causes of cancer, because if you fry food in the same oil for a long time, it becomes a carcinogen that is very toxic to the human body.

Chips "Lays"

This brand of chips is very popular among consumers and has an average cost. What is the composition of Lays chips? According to the inscription on the package, they include potatoes, vegetable oil, flavor, flavor enhancer, citric acid, glucose, dye, spices and s alt. For the preparation of snacks, not any potato is used, but onlyits separate variety is the so-called chips, which contains a lot of starch. It is cleaned, cut into pieces, and then immersed in a frying bath, in which the slices are fried in vegetable oil. After that, various spices are added to the Lays chips to give them a special aroma and taste. Based on the above, the basis of chips is potatoes, but still flour is added to them, in addition, it should be noted that they contain a lot of starch, which is transformed into glucose when it enters the body, therefore chips cannot be called a dietary product, taking into account also that in 100 g of Leys chips - 510 kcal.

Chips: production

The production of chips takes place according to the following classical scheme. Since they are made from potatoes, this vegetable is first delivered to the plant, with individual varieties that are distinguished by a high content of starch. After it is thoroughly washed and cleaned, removing all the shortcomings of the tuber, the potatoes are sent to a special shredding drum, where the vegetable is finely chopped using an automatic mechanism with built-in knives with a sharp blade. After the potatoes are cut into thin slices, the thickness of which should not exceed two millimeters, the potatoes enter the frying bath, which is pre-poured with vegetable oil, and fried at 250 degrees.

The production of chips is carefully checked at each stage so that the products meet all consumer qualities. After frying, various spices, flavorings are added to the hot product.additives, s alt, flavors and color and taste enhancers. In some factories producing chips, the process of making them is slightly different, since not the potato itself is taken as the basis for making snacks, but a mixture of starches and flour. From them, blanks are prepared for chips, which are then fried with the addition of mixtures and other additives. The quality of vegetable oil determines how useful the product will be for human he alth, since cheap fats at high temperatures turn into carcinogens that cause cancer.

Chips calories

Chips are mainly carbohydrates (potatoes, flour, starch) and fats (vegetable oil, refined and deodorized fats), so they are far from being a dietary snack. What is the calorie content of chips? So, 100 g of the product contains about 517-538 kcal, depending on its type. At the same time, the chips contain 49.3 carbohydrates, 2.2 proteins and 37.6 fats. A standard pack of chips is 28 grams and contains 142 kcal, which replaces a bowl of soup with meat or fried potatoes and a couple of slices of sausage.

Variety of chips

Today, many different flavors of chips have been invented, so even the most demanding consumer has something to choose from all their diversity. So, the most common types of product are chips with the taste of mushrooms, ketchup, cheese and bacon. In addition, such flavors of chips as "Sour Cream and Herbs", "Green Onion" and "Red Caviar" are very popular. New,which are especially suitable for beer are chips with the taste of hunting sausages, chicken wings, lightly s alted cucumbers, jelly and horseradish, smoked cheese and crab. There are also original flavors, for example, chocolate and chili, mint lamb, pepperoni, fruits (orange, kiwi), Greek salad, balsamic vinegar, wasabi and the like. It should be noted that, of course, cheese or bacon are not added to potato chips, these are flavorings and flavors that are identical to natural ones.

Are there potatoes in modern chips?

Unfortunately, chips based on potatoes are very rare today, since for the most part this vegetable has long been replaced by potato powder, or, in simple words, flour (corn or wheat) and starch. What are the differences between the products and what harm does the reduction in the cost of production of chips bring to the consumer? Of course, there is nothing wrong with potatoes fried in high-quality oil. Yes, this is a high-calorie product with a high glycemic index, but it contains vitamins and nutrients, so it will not bring harm to the body.

However, the same cannot be said about starch and flour, from which "potato" chips are made in cheap factories. It is their content in most products that is considered the main cause of obesity. With the accumulation of glucose in the liver, into which starch is converted, a person begins to recover greatly, which negatively affects his he alth. It is difficult for the consumer to distinguish whether potatoes are replaced by potatoespowder or not, as the product contains a lot of monosodium glutamate and other flavorings. If you give a person a taste of chips for the first time, he will immediately feel that they have a lot of s alt and spices that completely interrupt the taste of other ingredients. Making this potato snack is not very cost-effective, and therefore unprofitable. Therefore, in reality, potatoes are quite difficult to find in modern chips.

Now you know the composition of chips. Use this product or not - the choice is yours!