Just in time for the Holidays, Frito-Lays is expected to unveil its new Wavy Potato Chips in milk chocolate USA Today this week USA Today reported.
"When you try something drastically different, you have to walk before you can run," Ray Krishnan, vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay told USA Today in a statement. "We wanted to test our way through this before we go big."
The company's news is the latest development in its line of sweet and salty food items including ice cream stuffed with pretzels, and pretzels with a coating of chocolate.
"Flavors are getting more sophisticated and complex," Tom Vierhile, innovation insights director at DataMonitor, the consumer products research firm told USA Today. "We are seeing more products that may pair traditional flavor opposites like sweet and salty."
The chips are also part of the company's slew of seasonal food products, which have become popular between Halloween and New Year's.
Consumers will be able to find them in Target stores, but on a limited basis since the company is still testing out the product and seeing how it does.
"It gives us latitude to offer other flavor combinations that we've never done. (Among them, would be dark chocolate, white chocolate and even peppermint,)" Krishnan told USA Today.
The company's move is also the latest from many companies of its kind who have experimented with ingredients for their food products such as Kettle Maple Bacon Potato Chips, Planter's Sweet and Salty Snack mix, ConAgra's Crunch n'Munch and Sweet 'n Salty Bugles.
"(The growing consumer cry for a combo of sweet and salty) opens a world of possibilities that we haven't explored before," Krishnan told USA Today.
The amount of people who eat a snack three to four times a day is up to 43 percent from 24 percent in 2009 according to findings from research specialist Symphony IRI USA Today reported.
