Inflated Claim? Keeping Chips Fresher Is a Gas

Potato chips could taste a little better and have a crisper crunch. They just need the right gas, according to a Chicago-area scientist.

A bag of chips, normally treated with nitrogen gas to keep the chips fresher, might taste better if gassed with argon instead, says Kevin C. Spencer of Oak Brook, Ill., a former scientific consultant for France’s Air Liquide and grocer Safeway of Britain.

Popular in Britain, argon isn’t used for food preservation in the U.S., Spencer said.

Spencer, who is presenting research to an American Chemical Society meeting here today, developed a method patented by industrial gas supplier Air Liquide that could slow the oxidation of foods, such as potato chips.

“Oxygen is the primary reason flavors are destroyed,” Spencer said.

That’s why food makers put nitrogen in chip bags to displace some of the oxygen. Oil-based foods, such as chips and nuts, are particularly prone to degrade once exposed to oxygen, Spencer said.

Nitrogen isn’t as dense as argon, so it doesn’t displace as much of the oxygen left in the bag, he said.

The quality of packaged food products could be improved about 25% if argon was substituted for nitrogen, Spencer said.

Spencer, a former professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, now works as private consultant.