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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Amelia Tait

‘How do you reduce a national dish to a powder?’: the weird, secretive world of crisp flavours

A composite image of bags of crisps and a tube of Pringles from around the world
All photographs: Michael Hedge/The Guardian Photograph: Michael Hedge/The Guardian

Reuben and Peggy’s jobs are not top secret in the way top secret jobs usually are. They don’t have guns, for example – and the grey conference table they sit at is much the same as you’d find in any office in the UK. They even have LinkedIn profiles that tell you their job titles. But this is where things get odd: search the name of the company they work for – a name I have agreed not to print – and you’ll find little information about the work Reuben and Peggy do. You could click through every page on their company’s website and leave with no idea that it creates the most beloved crisp flavours in the world.

Reuben and Peggy are not their real names. Reuben is a snacks development manager and Peggy is a marketer, and they work for a “seasoning house”, a company that manufactures flavourings for crisps.

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