It seemed like a pipe dream, in the summer of 2022, when Walkers vowed to make 50% of its sales from snacks that were non-HFSS or sold in portions of under 100 calories by 2025.

Walkers had only just unveiled its first HFSS-compliant crisps range – 45% Less Salt. The range offered reduced-salt versions of the Walkers Ready Salted, Cheese & Onion and Salt & Vinegar flavours. However, the fact that these new lines sat alongside the existing Walkers crisps portfolio – rather than replacing it – seemed to suggest PepsiCo lacked confidence the range would take off.

This week, PepsiCo made a rather stronger statement as it unveiled a newly reformulated Doritos that will mean the entire Doritos range is HFSS-compliant. The snacking giant has achieved this feat by adding more corn to the recipe and tweaking the seasonings to create a “crunchier, more substantial” chip.

The fact that PepsiCo is willing to commit to the wholesale makeover of the £271m Doritos brand [NIQ 52 w/e 31 December 2023] to achieve its target shows that PepsiCo is taking its commitment to ‘healthier snacking’ seriously. And health campaigners are already applauding the news. 

“I think this is a superb strategic move from PepsiCo,” says Future Food Movement business lead Louis Bedwell. “We need to make it easier for everyone to make healthier choices, a huge part of this is about making the bad stuff better.”

Still an ultra-processed food

While PepsiCo has managed to get on the right side of the nutrient profiling model (NPM), however, it hasn’t made much progress in improving its status as an ultra-processed food: the new, non-HFSS recipes still contain controversial flavour enhancers, such as monosodium glutamate and disodium guanylate.

Perhaps this explains why PepsiCo focused in its marketing on the improved taste of the reformulated Doritos to consumers, rather than their nutritional credentials. The slogan ‘Bolder crunch, iconic taste’ has been added to the front of packs, with no nutritional callouts added.

Still, the reformulation will allow PepsiCo to merchandise Doritos on the end of aisles and continue to market the brand heavily when the ban on HFSS ads comes in next year. PepsiCo has obviously decided the benefit of keeping Doritos front-of-mind for consumers outweighs the potential risk of losing loyal shoppers with the reformulation.

Even so, PepsiCo hasn’t made this decision lightly. The new recipes were tested on a panel of Doritos super-fans last year. According to PepsiCo, 91% of 600 consumers who ate Doritos once a week or more approved of the reformulation based on its “bold flavour, texture, appearance and aroma” [Monadic consumer home use test, January 2023].

The cost of reformulation

PepsiCo also claims it had to invest £13m into its Coventry line to switch to the new recipe. The investment funded the replacement of a manufacturing line, allowing changes to be made to each stage of the production process – from corn washing and milling to cutting and cooking.

While the reformulation certainly came at a cost, Bedwell thinks it’s an investment well made, a “superb strategic move” that sets a precedent for PepsiCo’s rivals to follow. “Big brands taking risks and reformulating their products signals a move to the market and will open up the category for further change,” he says.

Perhaps we’re about to see a new wave of HFSS-compliant innovation hit the snacking aisles.

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