A former food consultant has lifted the lid on how a Pringles Tube has been engineered specifically to keep us going back for more – and says it’s down to evolution.
In a new BBC two-part documentary, Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Eating, doctor Chris van Tulleken explores the way in which ultra processed foods have been engineered to be psychologically addictive.
During the first episode in the two-part documentary, TV doctor and author of Ultra Processed People Chris, speaks to a number of food industry experts from around the world, on how ultra-processed foods are designed to be near-impossible resist.
One former employee at the crisp company revealed how the renowned tube container has been designed to encourage chip crunchers to consume even more – by tricking an evolutionary part of the brain.
Sensory Food Consultant Professor Barry Smith revealed that the tubes are designed to be too small for our hands to mimic the feeling of ‘foraging’.
‘When I worked for Pringles, they were really worried about the competition from Doritos and they were trying to think of ways to innovate,’ he said.
‘One idea was, let’s make the tube bigger so that we can get our whole hand in there.
‘And I said, no no, don’t do that. People like struggling to have to get their hand in. They’re like foraging bears. They’re trying to extract the food.
Sensory Food Consultant, Professor Barry Smith (pictured) revealed that the tubes are designed to be too small for our hands to mimic the feeling of foraging
A former food consultant has lifted the lid on the evolutionary driven way the design packaging of a Pringles tube is engineered to be addictive
‘And that searching out, that’s increasing your desire.’
‘Pringles are often irresistible. It’s in their slogan,’ he said.
The documentary shared a snippet from an archived advert made by the company. ‘Potato crisps in a tube, pop it up and get in the mood. Once you pop, you can’t stop,’ played the catchy jingle from the avert.
The noise of any crisp packet is generally designed to be extra loud which makes you think ‘fresh, fresh fresh’,’ he also revealed.
‘Eating is a multi sensory experience. There’s the look of the food, the smell of the food, there’s the feeling of the food on your fingers,’ said the food consultant.
‘Even the sound of food matters,’ he said alongside clips of crisp packets tearing open, cans cracking and KitKats snapping.
‘When you open a fizzy soda, you’ve got two noises. You’ve got the click and the tear. Sound engineers and manufacturers work really hard to get that sound just right and that’s sonic branding.’
Sound branding is the expression of a brand through signature sounds. For Pringles this could be the memorable noise a crisp makes when its snapped and crunched by your teeth.
The food consultant said: ‘People like struggling to have to get their hand in. They’re like foraging bears. They’re trying to extract the food’
In a new BBC two-part documentary, Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Eating, doctor Chris van Tulleken (pictured), explores the way in which ultra processed foods have been engineered to be psychologically addicting
Tapping into the sensory experience is one of multiple ways the food industry encourages people to eat more, experts shared.
It comes after research revealed that Britons are some of the biggest consumers of ultra-processed foods globally, with adults on average getting 57 per cent of their calories from them. Meanwhile, children got an even greater 67 per cent from UPFs.
Food texture, packaging and a culture of ‘snackification’, all contribute our hankering for delicious ultra processed foods and why it’s so hard to stop eating them.
‘Food companies are using branding to grab our attention. It’s salt, fat, sugar all wrapped up in appealing packages,’ Dr Chris said, adding that we are in a ‘food crisis’.
‘The thing that makes us eat a lot isn’t just what we do to the food, it’s also about logos, marketing, branding, the box the food comes in,’ he explained.
The documentary revealed how the food industry revolutionised the way food was produced in the 1970s.
‘In the mid 1970s, obesity started going up in all the groups, simultaneously. If you’re saying willpower is responsible, what you’re saying is that all these groups of people simultaneously lost moral responsibility,’ Chris explained.
‘And that’s not plausible. Something else happened to our food in the mid 1970s that made it irresistible.
‘From the 1970s, food companies started to realise that if they used proper scientific development processes, they could sell us a lot more food.’
Chris told the documentary that speaking to food developers revealed two key factors involve in engineering products that drive us to buy them: ‘how quickly do people eat and much do they eat’.
The remainder of the documentary delves into the methods by which food companies make food taste better and therefore more addicting.
According to Chris van Tulken, ‘the biggest problem with this kind of food is that so many of us struggle to stop eating it’
‘Products over time became more complicated and more artificial,’ Chris explained.
Describing ultra-processed foods, he said: ‘We’ve been doing food processing for thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of years, without significant health problems.’
This is where: ‘We take whole food and we smoke it and salt it and preserve it, ferment it. It’s essential for human life. Ultra processed foods are entirely different.
‘If you’re wondering if something you’re eating is ultra-processed, look at the ingredients and if you see things you wouldn’t expect to find in a home kitchen, then it’s probably an ultra-processed food,’ he explained.
According to the author, ‘the biggest problem with this kind of food is that so many of us struggle to stop eating it.’
The doctor and author has conducted a significant amount of research in the area of UPFs, looking in the impact they have on human physical, emotional and mental health – as well as their power to be addictive.
He described himself in the documentary as one of a group of doctors ‘worried about what effect the global food system is having on all of us’.
Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Eating airs tonight on BBC at 9pm.
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