What are Pringles Made of? Is it Actually a Real Potato Chips?

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Last Updated on October 7, 2024

For those who are a fan of Pringles, how are Pringles made? If you’re one of the many people who’s hooked into these salty but yummy potato chips, have you ever thought about how these tiny yet addicting chips are created? After all, if you’re so obsessed with Pringles, then wouldn’t it be good if you actually knew what they’re made of?

While most of you will say that Pringles are obviously made solely from potatoes, they’re actually not. However, don’t fret because, even if Pringles are not 100% made from potatoes, they’re not necessarily packed with harmful chemicals.

 What are Pringles Made of?

Pringles are still made from potatoes but not totally. Pringles are not your typical potato chips where you shave off bits from the potato and then fry them. 

Instead, pringles are made first by preparing a slurry that’s obtained from corn, potato flakes, rice, and wheat. Once the slurry is ready, a machine will then press the mixture to let it take its shape.

This is a detailed list of Pringles’ ingredients:

•       42% potato content
•       Wheat starch
•       Corn, rice, or potato flour
•       Emulsifier
•       Vegetable oil
•       Salt and seasonings

Some Pringles may have additional ingredients for more flavor. Ingredients like:

•       Dextrose or maltodextrin as sweeteners
•       Monosodium glutamate or MSG
•       Disodium inosinate
•       Sodium caseinate
•       Disodium guanylate
•       Modified food starch
•       Diglyceride and monoglyceride
•       Malted barley, wheat, or bran flour
•       Artificial and natural flavorings
•       Autolyzed yeast extract
•       Cheddar cheese, sour cream, etc.

N/B: Each Pringles will have different ingredients depending on the flavor.

 Also, it would interest you to know that the multi-grain or tortilla Pringles, that we adore so much often comes with different ingredients other than the basic ones. Ingredients like:

•     Starch ingredients, which are replaced by corn and barley flour
•     Wheat bran and rice
•     Black beans

Pringles Flavors

One of the reasons why Pringles are so addicting is not only because of their texture and crunchy nature, but also because of their flavorings. 

The most popular flavors are the original, onions and sour cream, salt and vinegar, barbeque, ranch dressing, baked potato, and hot and spicy.

Given that there are certain flavors for specific markets as well, such as wasabi, curry, and prawn cocktail, there are also some limited edition or seasonal flavors such as chili, ketchup, zesty lime, paprika, buffalo wings, chili cheese dog, and Cajun. 

How is it Made?

Now that you’re aware of the ingredients used in making Pringles, have you ever wondered how they’re made? Most especially how they’re formed into these perfect concave shapes?

The Pringles are made firstly from slurry as mentioned above, which is made from the basic ingredients to form the base. Thereafter is the flavoring process, with which you can choose any flavor you’d like.

Once it’s ready, the slurry will then be molded into the desired shape. However, before the Pringles are fried, they will have to pass through the rolling molds, where they’ll be shaped into their famous concave form.

On doing that, the Pringles will then be sent to the fryer through a conveyor belt. And using very hot oil, the Pringles will be fried for around 11 seconds. During this part, it’s crucial that the Pringles will only be fried for a few seconds as they might become too burnt.

Once the Pringles are perfectly fried to a golden crisp, on a conveyor belt, they will be sent under a huge blower. It is during this stage that, droplets of oil will be flying everywhere. And it is often significant for this to happen because, It won’t only allow the Pringles to cool down, but also get rid of any excess oil.

After this stage, comes the seasoning where, the Pringles will pass under a machine, that will cover each and every one of them with the seasoning. 

Thereafter, they will then be sent to another conveyor where they’ll be flipped, thus creating a neat pile.

However, this is often not the last process of making Pringles, as it often still undergoes a quality inspection by a worker. Now what the worker will do is to keenly check, for any oddly shaped Pringle. 

As soon as any is seen, the Pringles will be sent back to the conveyor where they’ll be shaken (not too hard) so that they’ll spread out. 

Thereafter, they will then pass through a weighing scale for packaging, before getting to the last step, where the scaled Pringles will then be pushed into the cardboard tube. 

For every one stack of Pringles, it takes around 20 minutes to make it. 

Is it Actually a Real Potato Chip?

We’ve now come to the part where we’re going to explain if Pringles are actually real potato chips. 

Basically, as they are still made out of potatoes, they can still, technically, be called potato chips.

However, Pringles aren’t necessarily real and made from pure potato chips. This is because they have a lot of added ingredients, flavorings, and unnatural additives, which tends to neutralize the natural potato component. 

In fact, the Pringles company even said that what they are producing is not considered potato chips.

In their statement, they argued that because Pringles have a low potato content and undergo a lot of processing, they are not selling them as real potato chip snacks. 

As such, if you want a legit potato snack, you can eat some by slicing your own potato chips, frying them, and just adding any natural flavoring such as salt and pepper. 

However, for Pringles and other popular stackable chips in the market, they’re definitely not natural as they need to undertake a lot of modifying and processing so that they can have a longer shelf life. 

Conclusion

So, that’s it. Pringles are not actually real potato chips. This is because aside from preserving them to last for a long period of time, the Pringles company is also alternating its products to avoid taxes. 

Given that potato chips are taxed as they’re considered a luxurious item, and in order to avoid paying such taxes, Pringles are made in such a way that they’re done today.

For those who are obsessed with Pringles, there is nothing to worry though as these concave goodies are still edible. Just don’t make them your daily food as preservatives and highly processed foods are not generally good. 

Do you have any questions or interesting facts about Pringles? You can simply drop your comment down in the section below. 

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