VAT man can't take a pop at Pringles

Published on Friday 4 July 2008 21:33

IT'S official. Pringles, the popular snack food in a tube, are not potato crisps, a High Court judge has ruled. This means they are not subject to VAT because they are now deemed legally to be in the category of traditional baked food, like bread. This will come as news to the three men who were responsible for creating Pringles.

During the Cold War in the Fifties, the US Army was anxious to maintain fighting morale by shipping crisps to the troops on the front line. But crisps are greasy things that can't be packed flat to fit in combat rations. The last thing you want when being shot at is to open your crisp packet and find them smashed into tiny bits. So a researcher called Alexander Liepa invented a dough-like substance that could be baked into a dry, crisp-like material with a uniform shape that could be stacked – all very military.

Then a science-fiction writer called Gene Wolfe (The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, etc) invented a machine to bake the stuff commercially. Finally a certain Fred Baur designed the Pringles "packaging system". Mr Baur was so proud of his invention that he requested to have his ashes placed in the iconic can, which happened earlier this year.

You might be wondering what all this has to do with real food. The answer is not a lot. But they do taste very yummy and you don't have to pay VAT on them.