# Pringle's: Truth or UL? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 21, 2000, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013 "2000-03-21T14:49:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/1 "2000-03-21T14:49:00Z")
Is it true that Pringle’s is required to call its products potato **crisps** rather than **chips** , for fear of a lawsuit from some group like the Potato Chip Makers of America or some-such? I heard it has something to do with how Pringle’s are made - that they aren’t actually slices of potato, but tiny bits of potato reformed. How can this possibly be a big deal? Is there really some group out there that calls the shots on when a chip is a chip, or is it just an urban legend? * * * “Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known” - Michel Gyquem de Montaigne ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Incognito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guy_incognito/32/3920_2.png) [@Guy\_Incognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Incognito)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/2 "2000-03-21T15:00:00Z")
Saw something relating to this in one of the “Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader” books. I’ll try to find the specific article tonight. ## BTW: I think it’s for real. “It’s only common sense, There are no accidents 'round here.” ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/3 "2000-03-21T15:15:00Z")
I had always assumed it was the other way around–that they had “trademarked” “Potato Crisps” to differentiate them from regular chips. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/4 "2000-03-21T15:16:00Z")
- - - IIRC they wanted to trademark the name “potato chips” and an organization such as Guy Incognito mentioned said no way. Allowing this would have meant that every other potato chip maker would have not been able to use the term “potato chips” as a description of their own products. “Potato chips” is a generic term, “potato crisps” is all Pringle’s. - MC ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/5 "2000-03-21T17:05:00Z")
I don’t think this answers your question, but what the hell. A link to [www.pringle.com](http://www.pringle.com) can’t hurt. Warning - the shockwave splash startup screen is **highly** annoying. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/6 "2000-03-21T17:07:00Z")
Oops, that’s a link to a retirement community, I think [www.pringles.com](http://www.pringles.com) is what you really want. Or maybe not. It’s your call. Once you pop, you can’t stop. ---
**Author:** ![NickyLarson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b2d939/32.png) [@NickyLarson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NickyLarson)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/7 "2000-03-21T17:13:00Z")
In a literal sense, they aren’t **chips,** i.e., chips of potato. Being reconstituted potatoes (or 'flaked and formed, like Steak’Ums), I think the FTC requires them to be called something else. Maybe. * * * “If I pinch my nose with my fingers, close my mouth tight, and blow real hard, I can make my ears bleed. It’s not as cool as Superman’s X-ray vision, but it’s my own special talent.” ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/8 "2000-03-21T17:26:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Oops, that’s a link to a retirement community Whew, I was worried for a second there. I wouldn’t want to “slam a stack” of “Florida’s Leading Active Adult Community Developer”… * * * **Gypsy** : Tom, I don’t get you. **Tom Servo** : Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/9 "2000-03-21T17:58:00Z")
So what about those Baked Lay’s potato snacks like you can pick up at Subway? What do they call them? I don’t have a bag at hand but I’m pretty sure those are made much the same way as Pringles. * * * Cave Diem! Carpe Canem! ---
**Author:** ![SoMoMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@SoMoMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoMoMom)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/10 "2000-03-22T06:00:00Z")
“Gypsy: Tom, I don’t get you. Tom Servo: Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby.” Alphagene, my husband had me convinced that I was the only person on earth that likes that show. As special and important as I am, I knew they didn’t just air a show for ME every week! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![InutilisVisEst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d2c977/32.png) [@InutilisVisEst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InutilisVisEst)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/11 "2000-03-22T06:47:00Z")
Dang! Now that you mention it, I think Pringles figured prominently in an MST3K host segment. Not sure if it’s Joel doing foley sounds during Cave Dwellers, or something else. I can just see Mike and the bots debating this very thread: Tom- You may well ask “what difference ‘chips’ or ‘crisps,’” as if it were merely a matter of… Crow- Hey! Who ate all the CheezWhiz? Mike- _mmph_ * * * I lead a boring life of relative unimportance. Really. ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/12 "2000-03-21T19:02:00Z")
Actually, a cast member of the MSTie’d movie “Space Mutiny” was named Guy Pringle. Mike said that he “wouldn’t want to slam a stack of _that_ guy.” * * * **Gypsy** : Tom, I don’t get you. **Tom Servo** : Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby. ---
**Author:** ![Gilligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Gilligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilligan)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/13 "2000-03-22T00:40:00Z")
I seem to recall that when these were first introduced, they were called “Pringle’s New-Fangled Potato Chips.” Not sure when they became “crisps.” ---
**Author:** ![Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilgore_Trout_1)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/14 "2000-03-22T03:17:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by MC: > **"Potato chips" is a generic term, “potato crisps” is all Pringle’s. - MC** not so… they are called crisps in britain, including some english brands that are sold in north america. * * * _what is essential is invisible to the eye -the fox_ ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/15 "2000-03-22T03:23:00Z")
Munchos are “a reconstituted potato snack.” ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/16 "2000-03-22T04:26:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Pringle’s: Truth or UL? Hate to be the one to tell ya this, Milossarian, but there really are such things as Pringles. _GD&R_ ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/17 "2000-03-22T05:34:00Z")
Under the FDA, there are rules about food labeling. There are “generally recognized” names for certain types of food. Therefore, if a food is labeled with that name, the customer can be reasonably sure of what he or she is getting. An example is cheese. It has to be “natural” cheese if it is to be labeled “cheese.” Processed cheeses cannot be called “cheese.” This is why you see such labels as “Kraft’s Singles.” Then in smaller print it says “processed cheese food,” or some such. The same holds true for potato chips. A potato chip is a deep-fried slice of potato. (I am not sure about whther a baked slice can be called a potato chip.) Pringles are not deep-fried slices of potato. They are made from a dehydrated, granulated potato product, which is then reconstituted and molded into the familiar Pringles shape. I think it is deep-fried after that. So, Pringle’s do not meet the FDA definition of potato chips. Therefore they can not label the product “potato chips.” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/18 "2000-03-22T13:25:00Z")
## What about corn chips? They’re not slices of corn, but something more like Pringles. They’re called “chips”. “I must leave this planet, if only for an hour.” – Antoine de St. Exupéry Are you a turtle? ---
**Author:** ![JoeyBlades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@JoeyBlades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeyBlades)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/19 "2000-03-22T13:58:00Z")
MC writes: > [@](#): > > IIRC they wanted to trademark the name “potato chips” and an organization such as Guy Incognito mentioned said no way. Allowing this would have meant that every other potato chip maker would have not been able to use the term “potato chips” as a description of their own products. “Potato chips” is a generic term, “potato crisps” is all Pringle’s. Actually, Proctor and Gamble are no more or less capable of trademarking the term “Potato Crisp” than they are of the term “Potato Chip”. As has been mentioned, potato crisp is the common term in the UK and, in fact, many varieties of potato crisps are marketed in the US. All of this hints as to why P&G decided to call Pringles potato crisps… The story that I’ve been told is that originally these were manufactured by a Scotsman named Pringle who called them crisps, per his cultural standard. When P&G bought the rights to the process they adopted the name as a product differentiator. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013/20 "2000-03-22T14:01:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Johnny L.A.: > \*\*What about corn chips? They’re not slices of corn, but something more like Pringles. They’re called “chips”. > \*\* The restriction is not on the word “chip.” It is on the phrase “potato chip” as it is applied to the label of a food product. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pringles-truth-or-ul/9013.md?page=2)