The fact that our country is among the world leaders in grain exports is a well-known fact. And the fact that we supply a dozen foreign countries with our sunflower oil is also not news. We even supply beef to foreign markets. But here's the fact that Russia burst into the international market with its ... chips! - an unexpected fact.
Harmful. But I want to
"Unexpected, but accomplished," - say experts of the marketing agency Roif Expert, who studied the market for potato chips. True, they say, our chips have not yet reached the very far abroad, but Kazakhstan, Belarus, Azerbaijan and other countries of the former USSR are completely addicted to them. Fortunately, marketers emphasize, over the past three years, the growth in the production of chips in the country significantly outstripped even the increased dynamics of domestic consumption. And this difference made it possible to increase exports by about 10% every year.
Last year, it amounted to almost 20% of the total volume of production in the country. In value terms, it is 75 million US dollars. In fairness: foreign chips are also imported into Russia. But if, for example, in 2015, the volumes of import and export were almost equal, then in 2019, deliveries from abroad were three times less than export from Russia.
On this, the ledger with the results of the global study can be put aside. And pay attention to the peculiarity of the current situation, noticed by the marketers of the trade link - those who track consumer movements directly in stores. So, it turns out that the purchases of snacks in the two weeks of forced "vacation" in the cities have almost doubled. And chips are just part of the snack product group.
Snacks are products for quickly and easily satisfying hunger. They also help pass the time. Including those who are now in self-isolation. This is the explanation for the increased consumer demand.
The entire huge snack market is divided into two, also rather big, groups - for savory and sweet snacks. The first is led by our chips (they also own the largest share in the overall snack market - almost 30%). Behind them are seeds, nuts; salted crackers, straws, cookies; fish, seafood; smoked sausages, etc.
According to the research company "Market Analytica", the most popular chips among Russians are cheese-flavored chips. They are preferred by 36% of consumers. Then in descending order: chips with sour cream and herbs (14%), natural chips with salt (12%), with onions (10%), with bacon (8%), with sour cream and mushrooms (4%). 3% of consumers “don't care, I love everyone”.
Men from 18 to 50 years old give more preference not only to chips, but also to all salty snacks. The most active consumers are young people from 16 to 23 years old and middle-aged people.
Although most eaters - 80% - consider chips and other salty snacks unhealthy, they buy them anyway. 37% shell out for snacks at least once a week, 30% - once every two to three weeks. But 10% eat these products daily.
Revenge of the Evil Cook
The history of world culinary knows many products that were born thanks to pure chance. So it was with chips.
... The steamship magnate, the largest shipowner in the New World, Cornelius Vanderbilt, had a capricious personality. Once he stayed at the best hotel in the resort town of Saratoga Springs and was invited to a table at lunchtime.
History is silent about what exactly was served for lunch. But in paints he describes the disgust that the potato caused in the millionaire. He, you see, was cut too coarsely. The dish was returned to the kitchen, a new one was brought. The reaction is the same: fi, big! .. And the third time - the same thing ...
The unfortunate cook George Crum was tortured to grind potatoes. And, preparing the dish for the fourth time, in irritation, he chopped the tubers into the finest slices. Then he fried them in oil until crisp. Later, he admits that it was a provocation - in spite of a fussy gaggle.
The provocation failed. Vanderbilt was delighted with the newfound dish. And I ordered potato slices (in English - chips) all the time that I lived in the hotel. The new dish was named "Chips Saratoga" and became a brand name.
It happened in 1853. And soon Krum opened his own restaurant. Moreover, the chips in it weren’t for sale; you could only chip fried potatoes at the table. The dish has become popular among the American elite and entered the menu of upscale restaurants in the United States.
Only thirty years later, crisp went out into the street. Thirty years later, in the 20s of the last century, she crossed the border of the United States and set off "to the world."
Chips appeared in the Soviet Union in 1963. Production was established in Moscow at the Mospischekombinat No. 1 enterprise. The product was called “Crispy Potato (in slices). Moscow ". It was produced packed in bags of 50 grams and at the price of 10 cents. In the province, even in large regional cities, nothing of the kind was produced. Therefore, a bag of crispy potatoes was a successful Moscow hotel. Let it be very buttery.
It was not by chance that I remembered the oiliness. Now one of the enterprises produces Moscow Potato, adhering to that old Soviet recipe, but making some adjustments to the technological process. This saved the final product from excess oil.
And the first acquaintance of Russia with foreign-made chips occurred in the mid-1990s. We have to admit: the whole country, from small to large, is hooked on them. Despite the fact that there were already known the results of scientific studies that recognized this product as junk food (junk food - "trash food").
Special Potato
The traditional way of preparing chips, like more than a century and a half ago, is to fry slices of raw potatoes. However, it is now often replaced with baked goods. In any case, the quality of the raw materials is very important, because ordinary table potatoes are not suitable for chips.
Breeders have developed varieties of special potato chips. His tubers should be dense, with a flat and certainly round surface. The list of mandatory requirements even spelled out what its eyes should be - shallow, to optimize the cleaning process. The chemical composition should also be distinctive: low sugar and high solids content.
Over the past decade and a half, new varieties and hybrids of not only foreign, but also domestic selection have appeared. And under the cultivation of potato chips in Russia now allocated a considerable area. So considerable that often the supply of new crop products exceeds the demand for it from the processing enterprises. Then the potato chips goes to retail on a par with the dining room.
By the standards of most manufacturers, frying oil should be odorless in the end product. Therefore, palm or soybean oil is most often used. For premium chips - olive. After frying, the chips are dried, salted, sprinkled and packed.
Another production method is molding. From potato dough seasoned with cereal flour, starch, salt, thin plates are formed - flat or corrugated, they are fried. At the same time, the taste of fried potatoes is practically lost, therefore, flavors are most often introduced into such chips. And so that the "aromas" do not disappear anywhere, monosodium glutamate is added - the most famous and widely used flavor enhancer in the world.
Another production method is puffed chips. They are also made "on starch". But its taste is practically not felt. And fewer additives are required to flavor these chips. In Europe, they now prefer this particular species. In Russia, however, such chips are still on the margins of consumer attention. Ditching chips when they've become an almost daily treat is not easy. Dependence on them is akin to narcotic - this was proved by German scientists. But no one has yet reported on how to "turn off the brain" from the uncontrolled use of junk food.