This is a product found at the Winter Fancy Food Show sponsored by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, Inc. Look for more new products uncovered by The Food Channel!

“Healthier, delicious, all-natural. Actually, we are all that and a bag of chips. How do we do it? Well, first, let’s talk about how we don’t do it. We never fry our chips. That just puts a lot of stuff in there that we could all do without. We never bake our chips either. That just takes a lot of flavor out, which, as snackers, we simply can’t do without.”
—popchips

We talked with Keith Belling, founder and CEO of popchips about his product. He told us, “I love snacking but I was not satisfied with regular chips—they aren’t healthy. I wanted to create something with all of the flavor, and none of the fat.”

Belling, who calls himself a “serial entrepreneur,” said one of the challenges was that “people are not eating snacks for health. It’s because they want a salty snack fix.” In other words, what he created had to taste good. The whole bag is just 100 calories, in a variety of fun flavors designed to “pop potato chips like popcorn.”

This “next generation potato chip” is what Belling calls “a better for you indulgence.” He adds that the product is meant for “people who gave up eating fried foods—for the snackers who can have faith in chips again.”

Because, as Belling says, “you can’t pop a slice of potato,” popchips turns a potato into the equivalent of a kernel of corn or a grain of rice. The end product has comparable nutrtionals to baked snacks, he says.

Distribution of this new product is growing—yes, they are popping up all over. Try a bag and let us know what you think!

Here is the link to Episode 8.

Check out our previous episodes as well, and shop for products in the marketplace below.

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7