Owners of PepsiCo have decided to prepare Lay's, a leading potato chip brand, in a healthier recipe for Indians. They are testing a new oil blend for this. Instead of using palm oil and palmolein, they are experimenting using a mixture that includes sunflower oil and palmolein. Palmolein is made by refining palm oil. Many packaged food brands in India use palm oil, including those that make salty snacks, biscuits, chocolates, noodles, bread, and ice cream. This is because palm oil is much cheaper than sunflower or soybean oil.
Foods prepared and packaged with palm oil are considered unhealthy. In the United States, PepsiCo's headquarters and largest market, Lay's uses oils that do not harm the human heart such as sunflower oil, corn oil and canola oil. PepsiCo claims that these oils contain fats that help lower LDL cholesterol and maintain HDL cholesterol.
PepsiCo began testing the new oil blend in some of its products last year. India is one of the cheapest places to get Lay's in the world. There has been widespread criticism that packaged foods sold in developing countries use cheaper and less healthy ingredients than those used in similar products in the US and Europe.
Apart from the oil change, PepsiCo is also trying to reduce the amount of salt in its snacks. The goal is to bring sodium to 1.3 milligrams per calorie or less by 2025. The company wanted to implement this in at least 75 per cent of its food products. Apart from Lay's, PepsiCo India also includes brands like Doritos, Kurkure and Quaker.