PepsiCo "Designer Salt" Makes Potato Chips Healthier

Potato chips are tough to make healthy, especially processed potato chips, but a new PepsiCo "designer salt" aims to do so. The salt crystals, which are still undergoing testing, have a more powdery consistency than traditional salt and will reduce plain chips' sodium level by 25 percent without affecting their flavor. The salt crystals' shape is designed specifically to melt on the tongue in a more efficient manner, which will potentially eliminate the roughly 80 percent of salt that gets swallowed without contributing to an item's flavor, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Food manufacturers have a worse time reducing sodium levels in plain potato chips than they do with flavored potato chips; brands like Lay's can simply pump up the spices and other flavorings and dial down the salt to make flavored chips healthier. That means that the PepsiCo "designer salt" could reduce sodium levels in flavored chips at an even greater scale.

Greg Yep, vice president of global research and development at PepsiCo, told the WSJ that it could be about two years before the designer salt hits the market. PepsiCo hopes to reduce the sodium levels in its savory snack items by 25 percent by 2015.

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