As disappointing as it can be to tear into a traveling bag of Lay ’s to find empty airwave where your afternoon bite should be , that extra blank in the package is there for a grounds . “ Slack fill ” is an knowing alternative by snack makers who want to protect their delicate products from the legal injury of rough handling during the shipping unconscious process . When products are stacked atop one another , crammed into slopped blank space , or simply jostled around in the back of a delivery truck , slack filling serve as an air cushion that prevent potato crisp from becoming potato crumbs .
That ’s not just any ordinary air heave up potato chip traveling bag , either : It ’s nitrogen . Oxygen can make the potatoes to deflower and the oil to go rancid , and the humidity found in ambient air makes the chips go mucky . Instead , packages are filled with nitrogen throttle to help the snacks stay impudent , which a trained panel of tasters confirmed in a 1994 food sciencestudy . Nitrogen flushing is n’t harmful in any way , since about 78 pct of the zephyr we breathe is draw up of nitrogen already . However , that does n’t condone the sheer proportion of outer space that gas occupies in a bag that ’s supposed to be filled with food .
Although the Union Fair Packaging and Labeling Act passed in 1966 required manufacturers to clearly point the nett weight of their product ’s content to prevent customers from being duped by immense - seeming containers on the shelves ( new and improved spud chips , now with 50 percentage more air ! ) , the regulations are rarely implement . Humans are terrible at accurately perceiving sizing , and even the most discerning shoppers will automatically assume that larger packaging intend more product if they do n’t face too closely at the label . So while some additional outer space in a traveling bag can assist keep potato chips fresh and intact , any more than necessary might be the company trying to pull a immobile one over us .
