Judge Ruled that Pringles Aren’t Potato Chips (For Tax Purposes, Anyhow)

By Alex in Food & Drink, Money & Finance on Jul 14, 2008 at 2:24 am

Whatever you do, just don’t call Pringles potato chips. That’s because a British judge has ruled in a tax dispute that Procter & Gamble’s snacks "don’t look like a chip, don’t feel like a chip, and don’t taste like a chip."

Heck, Pringles isn’t even "made from potato" (even though it is) for tax purposes:

Potato chips “give a sharply crunchy sensation under the tooth and have to be broken down into jagged pieces when chewed,” the Cincinnati-based company’s lawyers argued. “It is totally different with a Pringle, indeed a Pringle is designed to melt down on the tongue.”

Warren agreed. Pringles aren’t “made from the potato” for the purposes of the tax office’s exemption, he said. He didn’t say what Pringles are, other than that they’re tax-exempt.

Link – via One Large Prawn

Whatever they are, you can still be buried a can of Pringles!

Neat stuff from the NeatoShop:

Anthony
Jul 14th, 2008 at 4:21 am
French fries are made from potatoes.
SenorMysterioso
Jul 14th, 2008 at 6:17 am
Im inclined to think that a potato chip has to be a slice of potato. I think pringles are mashed up potatoes molded into the shape of a chip
Sid Morrison
Jul 14th, 2008 at 10:25 am
For the States, this is nothing new actually. Many years ago (1970s), Pringles U.S. ads carried the tagline “New Fangled Potato Chip”, but competitors whined and the Federal Government ruled they couldn’t call them potato chips. If you look on the can, they are currently labelled “potato crisps”.
LH
Jul 14th, 2008 at 10:32 am
They must be mashed potatoes molded, there´s no other way.
Camilla
Jul 14th, 2008 at 11:07 am
“They also claim the snack isn’t made like a chip since it is cooked from baked dough, not potato slices,”

says the article.
Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
Jul 14th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Doesn’t anyone read ingredients anymore? Pringles are NOT just potatoes.

From the Pringles website:

Ingredients: dried potatoes, vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, and/or sunflower oil), rice flower, wheat starch, maltodextrin, salt, and dextrose.

I haven’t been able to eat Pringles for years due to a wheat allergy. I can eat regular potato chips just fine, though.
Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
Jul 14th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I meant “rice flour”. That’s what I get for trying to type when I’m only half awake.
Shish
Jul 14th, 2008 at 11:51 am
That’s a very interesting article, especially this bit:

“the U.K. government was told by Europe’s highest court, the European Court of Justice, to entirely refund Marks & Spencer Group Plc more than 20 years of sales duty charged on chocolate-covered tea cakes.”

Since the tax was 17.5%, that’s no trivial amount. But Marks & Spencer didn’t actually PAY the tax – they just COLLECTED it from the customers and passed it on. So now they get to keep it? I suppose they deserve some reward for being one of the few organizations to impose a little humiliation on the UK’s obnoxious tax collectors.
Skipweasel
Jul 14th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Let’s have a short primer on English usage of English…

Crisps – thin slices of potato fried in oil until crisp right through with no discernable moisture.
Chips – thick batons of potato fried in oil but retaining a moist centre.
French Fries – thin batons of potato unlike anything a proper Englishman would eat – often served in burger joints.
lionheart
Aug 8th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
If it’s not a potato chip, what is it? It’s crunchy and it tastes like a potato chip. Weird.

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