No-Fat Olestra Snacks Head for Market

Grocery stores in Northern California will be among the first in the nation to carry snacks made with olestra, a controversial no-fat ingredient that Procter & Gamble Co. has spent $500 million and 30 years to develop.

PepsiCo Inc.’s Frito-Lay division on Tuesday said it is starting to ship fat-free versions of its Doritos, Ruffles and Lay’s potato chips and corn chips to stores in San Francisco, Sacramento and Seattle. Frito-Lay fat-free snacks and a fat-free version of Procter & Gamble’s Pringles potato chips will be available nationwide by summer.

Olestra is a cooking oil designed to keep snacks tasty while eliminating fat and cutting calories by about a third. The ingredient has ignited a war of words between P&G; and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that has branded olestra as unsafe.

The center paid for television commercials in olestra test markets to air charges that the ingredient has made snack-food customers sick with diarrhea and that it prevents absorption of certain vitamins.

“Olestra is not safe,” said Michael Jacobson, the center’s executive director. “A product like this should not be on the market.”

Procter & Gamble counters that a series of independent reviews, as well as a lengthy U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation, have cleared olestra--to be marketed under the Olean brand name--for use in salty snack foods.

Olean’s debut has stirred interest in the marketing world because regulators have ordered food companies to include package labels cautioning that olestra “may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools” and slow the absorption of some vitamins.

Two years of intense product testing in Ohio and Indiana leave Procter & Gamble executives confident that the cautionary label won’t scare away fat-conscious consumers who eat an average of 21 pounds of salty snacks each year.

Consumers in test markets purchased 28 million snack servings, said Greg Allgood, a senior scientist with Procter & Gamble. About 40% of all shoppers in those markets purchased the fat-free products, Allgood said, with 70% of them making repeat purchases.

Grocery store chains now taking shipments of Frito-Lay products say initial reaction seems to be favorable.

“There really hasn’t been an ingredient introduction like this since Nutrasweet 10 years ago,” said Debra Lambert, spokeswoman for the Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway and Vons chains. “So we’ve given samples, along with information, to our employees. The response so far is that they like the products--they taste great.”

Procter & Gamble Chairman John Pepper has described Olean as having the potential to be his company’s next Tide, Pampers or Crest brand. Food industry analysts say the cooking oil could eventually generate $500 million in annual revenue from domestic sales alone.

Procter & Gamble will rev up its marketing machine on Feb. 21 with Olean commercials to be broadcast during CBS-TV’s coverage of the Winter Olympics. The ads will tout Olean’s natural taste and touch upon the complex process of creating a cooking oil that’s fat-free but tasty.

Frito-Lay will charge about 25% more for its fat-free line bearing the Wow! label.