Though it’s been a while since I’ve visited one, there was a time when I was a frequent Subway customer. If you work or live near a Subway, it’s pretty hard to resist its siren song of quick and cheap sandwiches. Of course, they offer more than just sandwiches at Subway, and there’s always the temptation to get a bag of chips with your Spicy Italian. For me, the choice was simple: Sun Chips.
Sun Chips offer a slightly different taste and texture than other chips, but how much do we really know about them? Let’s explore everything there is to know about this solar-themed snack.
Who makes Sun Chips?
Like the Doritos and Lay’s that accompany them at the Subway counter, Sun Chips are made by the folks at Frito-Lay.
What are Sun Chips made of?
Let’s take a peek at the ingredients list for a bag of original Sun Chips, shall we? It contains: whole corn, sunflower and/or canola oil, whole wheat, brown rice flour, whole oat flour, sugar, salt, natural flavor, and maltodextrin (made from corn).
Sun Chips were synonymous with the ‘90s, first arriving on shelves in 1991.
Are Sun Chips baked?
While baked snacks have become popular in recent years due to their lower oil content, Sun Chips is not a part of this trend.
Are Sun Chips fried?
This may be a little surprising given their healthy reputation, but Sun Chips are in fact fried. The frying process gives them their distinctive crunch.
Despite the abundance of health-forward messaging on their packaging, Sun Chips are mostly made the same way as other chips, except using whole grains. Here’s a cool YouTube video showing some of the process. The chips are extruded, fried into their signature wave shape, blasted with added flavoring, bagged, and sent out for your enjoyment.
Are Sun Chips gluten free?
Sun Chips are made with whole grains, as they proudly proclaim on the packaging, so unfortunately, if you’re on a gluten-free diet, you’ll want to steer clear. Sun Chips are not gluten free.
Are Sun Chips vegetarian?
While this would usually be a fairly straightforward question, Sun Chips has had a bit of a meat-based controversy on its hands. You see, some Sun Chip flavorings have contained pork enzymes in the past. It seems that these days, original Sun Chips do not contain pork enzymes and can generally be considered vegetarian, though this is hard to confirm. If you want to avoid any trace of pork products whatsoever, because of dietary or religious reasons, you may be safer skipping Sun Chips.
Are Sun Chips vegan?
With the caveats noted above still applying, original Sun Chips are indeed vegan. Other flavors, such as Harvest Cheddar, and even some that you wouldn’t expect, do contain some dairy products in the flavoring. Be sure to double check the label before snacking!
Now that we’ve shined a light on everything Sun Chips-related, what’s your favorite flavor?
But Sun Chips are still fried in canola oil, the same as Lay's potato chips, which use a vegetable oil combination of “Canola, Corn, Soybean, and/or Sunflower oil.”
Original Sun Chips are vegan but the other four flavors are not because they all contain milk ingredients, even the Garden Salsa flavor, which you might expect to be vegan friendly.
Popchips are made via an oil-free method of heating the potatoes in a pressurized chamber until they “pop.” Chips are then coated with oleic oils, which various studies have shown support cardiovascular health, ease inflammation and help reduce appetite.
Potato chips are made through modern potato chips machine using mature flavoring technology. According to its making method, they can be classified into following types: fried potato chips, baked potato chips, and compound potato chips.
The ingredient in the chips associated with GMO corn is Maltodextrin, which is known to cause gastrointestinal issues in some people. When it comes to nutrition, Sun Chips aren't the wholesome snack you thought they were—they pack a ton of sodium (120mg), and a significant amount of fat (6g) per serving.
You'll also find veggie chips that look just like veggie straws, but in chip form. They have similar ingredients and nutrition, so they're not a super nutritious snack.
Chips are hyper-palatable foods, meaning their combination of fat, sugar, sodium and carbohydrates makes them addictive and artificially rewarding to eat.
You see, some Sun Chip flavorings have contained pork enzymes in the past. It seems that these days, original Sun Chips do not contain pork enzymes and can generally be considered vegetarian, though this is hard to confirm.
Our non-seasoned, salted-only snacks, such as Lay's Classic, Ruffles Original, Fritos Original, Santitas, Tostitos, SunChips Original and Rold Gold Pretzels, do not have animal enzymes of any kind.
Rennet has traditionally been used to separate milk into solid curds and liquid whey, used in the production of cheeses. Rennet from calves has become less common for this use, to the point that less than 5% of cheese in the United States is made using animal rennet today.
Frito-Lay's line of BAKED snacks are baked, not fried, to give you the great taste you've come to love with Frito-Lay snacks. On top of that, BAKED snacks offer less fat than regular potato chips1, cheese-flavored snacks2, and tortilla chips3.
Baked chips are slightly lower in calorie, though both offer the same amount of sodium, which is also something to be mindful of if you have hypertension (high blood pressure) and follow a heart-healthy eating plan.
Introduction: My name is Arline Emard IV, I am a cheerful, gorgeous, colorful, joyous, excited, super, inquisitive person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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