Over the past year I have come to find Eater a good source of information that you don’t find many other places: everything from recipes to articles about food history.
Today I read an article by Jaya Saxena, “a queer writer and editor from New York City” currently working as “the Senior Writer at Eater.com” about the differences between the ranges of potato chips available in America and in other countries.
She writes that
To understand why I can’t buy India’s Magic Masala chips at Target, we first have to understand how chips and other snacks are produced. And according to Jason Cohen, CEO of Gastrograph AI, the whole process is broken. Gastrograph is a company that helps food companies develop new products by using AI to target specific demographics. “All of the tools that exist today are geared towards making generally acceptable products,” he says. “It’s the bell curve.” Flavors like barbecue, sour cream and onion, and plain salt are produced because everyone likes them; and Flamin’ Hot only arose after a critical mass of people sought them out.
.
You can find the full article, Why Are American Chips So Boring? at, of course, Eater.com.