Frito-Lay Goes All-Natural, but Ditches Green Packaging

Frito-Lay, one of America's biggest snack manufacturers, recently made an interesting announcement: Beginning in 2011, the company will use only all-natural ingredients in 5o percent of its product line. The company's Hint of Lime Tostitos will lose their monosodium glutamate, sodium diacetate, and artificial colors. Lay's Barbeque-flavored chips will wave bye-bye to monosodium glutamate and other processed additives. It means that these snack foods will have to get their flavors from — gasp! — actual flavors.

So does the switch represent a move in decidedly greener direction, or is just plain greenwashing? A look at the company's history indicates that it could be more of the latter.

For one, Frito-Lay fails to extend beyond its 50 percent commitment to all-natural ingredients. Doritos and Cheetos will still rely on heavily processed, hard-to-pronounce ingredients to get their shockingly orange hues.

An even more egregious move, though, is the fact that as Frito-Lay embraces greener ingredients, it's ditching its eco-friendly packaging. It's ironic, but those "all-natural" chips will likely come packaged in petroleum-derived pouches.

Frito-Lay debuted the Ferrari of green packaging earlier this year. The snack manufacturer produced a 100 percent compostable potato chip sack that biodegrades completely in a mere 14 weeks. Folks could literally eat their chips and toss the bag — which was crafted from plant-based materials — into the compost heap. Frito-Lay packaged all of its SunChips varieties in the eco-friendly bags, to the applause of environmentalists and sustainable foodies.

There was just one problem: The bags produced a pretty loud crinkling and crackling sound due to their molecular structure. Apparently that didn't set well with some consumers, who made a lot of noise about the "deafening" bags. While Frito-Lay Canada stuck to its green guns and kept the compostable chip bags (and even produced an informative, feel-good PSA), the company's American branch ditched the planet-friendly pouches in all but one of its SunChips varieties.

I'm not trying to say that Frito-Lay's all-natural line isn't major — it's a huge step in the right direction, one that I hope other manufacturers will follow. But let's not let this positive move make us forget the company's previous misdeeds. Already, more than 900 Change.org members have petitioned Frito-Lay, asking the company to keep its compostable chip bags across its entire SunChips line. You can add your support to this campaign by signing our petition today. If consumer demand prompted the company to ditch the planet-friendly pouches in the first place, then consumer pressure can certainly get Frito-Lay to put these bags back where they belong.

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Photo credit: espensorvik via Flickr