What State Is Named The “Potato Chip Capital” Of The World?

National Potato Chip Day on March 14th celebrates America’s #1 snack food. Millions will enjoy their favorite chip this holiday.

It’s a good thing there are so many to choose from, too!

• 1853 – American chef George Speck (aka George Crum) creates potato chips in Saratoga Springs Moon Lake Lodge. They were named “Saratoga Chips.”
• 1859 – The first popular reference to the snack is written in “A Tale Of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens.
• 1870s – menus across the country used the term “Saratoga Chips” on train cars, hotel restaurants, and street carts.
• 1908 –  New England-based Tri-Sum Potato Chips, originally established in 1908 as the Leominster Potato Chip Company, in Leominster, Massachusetts, claims to be America’s first potato chip manufacturer.
• 1921 – Mass production of potato chips begins.
• 1910 – The Dayton, Ohio-based Mike-sell’s Potato Chip Company, founded in 1910, calls itself the “oldest potato chip company in the United States.”
• 1938 – Herman Lay founded Lay’s in Nashville and his potato chips became the first national brand to sell potato chips successfully on a wide scale
• 1939 – During WWII production of potato chips halted because they were deemed an “unessential food”
• 1944 – Lay’s became the first snack food manufacturer to purchase television commercials, with Bert Lahr as a celebrity spokesman
• 1950s – Flavored chips were introduced. Potato Chip revenues are over $15 billion a year worldwide!
• 1953 – Laura Scudder came up with the concept of putting the chips in wax paper bags instead of putting them in glass containers or barrels.
• the 1960s – Lay’s introduced what became its best-known slogan: “Betcha can’t eat just one”.
• in Shilling Cookery for the People by Alexis Soyer (1845) or Mary Randolph’s The Virginia House-Wife (1824). While many references between these dates sliced potatoes and fried them in grease, uncertainty remains about whether the potatoes were fried to a crisp.
• The average potato chip is .04 to 08 of an inch thick.
• in Great Britain and many other parts of the world Potato Chips are referred to as “crisps”. Chips, to them, are French Fried potatoes.
• It takes 1,000 pounds of potatoes to make 350 pounds of potato chips.
• The most popular US Potato Chip flavors are Regular, Barbecue Sour Cream and Onion.
• Potato chips are America’s favorite snack food.
• Americans eat about 1.85 billion pounds of potato chips or about 6.6 pounds per person annually. 
• Potato chip bags are only partially filled for a reason: The additional space adds cushioning to prevent breakage.
• The sound of crunching adds to the pleasure of eating chips. Snackers who eat chips with headphones on report becoming bored with chips more quickly.
• Roughly 28,000,000 pounds (13,000,000 kg) of chips are eaten during the Super Bowl.
• Pennsylvania is known as the “Potato Chip Capital” of the world and leads the United States in potato chip production.
• Pringles are not potato chips.  A high court ruled that because Pringles are made from dough, they are more like a biscuit or cake.
• You would get a larger dose of radiation from eating a bag of potato chips every day than you would if you lived next to a nuclear power plant. – Source
• 70 percent of all potatoes grown in Michigan, become potato chips, making them the No. 1 state for chipping production. – Source

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Days of the Year

Foodimentary

Mobile-Cuisine

Fact Retriever

Kickass Facts

Wikipedia

National Today