Why is it that bags of potato chips are filled with a little bit of chips and mostly air.?

Question

you grab a bag of chips from the store, the bag is puffed up but when you open it, the chips are a small amount, either get a smaller bag or stop making me pay for air

Answer 1

It makes you buy more potato chips cause you don't get full on the silly amount they put in the packet in the first place. It's insane!!!

Answer 2

i knoww!! it makes me madd! but thats just because they're cheapskates! hahah! or however you spell it!

Answer 3

Chips, and alot of other items, are sold by weight not volume.  The air helps to keep the chips fresh and it also provides a cushion so they aren't all smashed.

Answer 4

If they didn't blow all that air into the bags of chips, you'd have tiny crumbs by the time you got the bag.  The air provides a cushion to help keep the chips from getting crushed during shipping and handling.

If you want to by chips without all that air, get Pringles.  They come stacked in a can without extra air.

They can't pack regular chips like Pringles though, because the regular ones are cut from whole potatoes and are different sizes and shapes.

They can do it with Pringles, because they are formed in a machine to be all the same size and shape, using dehydrated flaked potatoes.

Answer 5

It's actually not air, but rather carbon dioxide to keep the chips from becoming stale.  It's inserted into the bag after the chips are placed in there (by weight, NOT volume) during the sealing/packaging process to keep them from being crushed to dust during transit and handling.