EXTREME POTATO CHIPS

How did we end up with more than 30 flavours of potato chips? What fiend dreamed up Ball Park Hot Dog? Or the chips flavoured not like the roast chicken served by Quebec's popular St-Hubert res-taurant chain, but the gravy that comes with it?

If you think there's a big expansion in the number of wacky chip flavours over the past two years, you're right.

As with many products these days, chip makers have to move faster to stay ahead of the pack.

Certainly there's big money at stake. Canadians spent $1.4 billion on salted snack foods last year. We eat an average of 5.4 kilograms of chips per person annually--the equivalent of 125 small 43-gram single-serving bags. Americans consume almost twice that amount, but they stick more closely to traditional varieties. "Canada is much more progressive as far as new flavours are concerned," says Lynda Murray, vice-president of marketing with Kitchener, Ont.-based Humpty Dumpty Snack Foods. And those new flavours are driving the market.

Consumer tastes have come full circle. The low-fat and fancy gourmet chips introduced in the mid-1990s didn't catch fire. Now the chip companies have rediscovered that these are not an upmarket food category.

The early adopters of new chip flavours tend to be teenagers, who are both adventurous and fickle, and don't care much about fat content. So, Humpty Dumpty, which trails only Hostess Frito-Lay Co. in Eastern Canada, holds informal monthly meetings with teenagers. Other new flavour ideas are generated in-house and by consumers. The company also convenes regional test panels.

Once Humpty Dumpty decides to go with a new flavour, the next step is usually a six-week market trial. But the chip will be sold only at gas stations and convenience stores in large, single-serving 75g bags. If it succeeds, it could be moved into the company's core lineup. That lineup now has about 30 flavours, including Buffalo Wings, the ultracheesy Au Gratin, and Dill Pickle.

Winnipeg-based Old Dutch Foods Ltd., the most popular brand in Western Canada, has had success with the ex-treme concept. X-Treme Salt and Vinegar, for example, has double the usual dose of both ingredients. "It's got really strong pucker power," says Matt Colford, Old Dutch's director of product marketing.

Old Dutch also monitors trends in takeout foods in Canada and abroad. "What we're seeing is just derivatives of heat everywhere we look," says Colford. Ergo, Old Dutch has gone beyond barbecue to Outback Smoky Barbeque.

However, sometimes the flavour differences between successes and failures are very small. Humpty Dumpty tried Hot Dog a few years ago, and it stiffed. But the new Ball Park Hot Dog variety, with mustard, ketchup and relish flavours added, appears to be doing well.

Still, you can only push a chip lover so far. Some people in the industry remember the grape-flavoured potato chips that made a brief appearance 20 years ago. "That's gone down in the chip books for sure," Humpty Dumpty's Murray says with a laugh. "What you learn from that is that being innovative is one thing, but at some point there needs to be a natural link to a potato." --JOHN DALYll the "arance 20 years ago. "That's gone down in the chip books for sure," Humpty Dumpty's Murray says with a laugh. "What you learn from that is that being innovative is one thing, but at some point there needs to be a natural link to a potato."

ONLY IN JAPAN

When it comes to adopting foreign pop culture and cuisine, the Japanese often go overboard. A local company called House Foods has introduced a new potato chip made by kneading Italian pasta flavours into potatoes. The chips come in three flavours: Peperoncino (garlic and red peppers), Karisumi (black chips, with a squid- ink flavour and garlic aroma) and Carbonara (seasoned with egg yolk, black pepper, cheese and bacon). Winners

Smoky Bacon

Barbecue and Cheddar

Dill Pickle

Salt and Pepper

St-Hubert (They taste like the Quebec chicken chain's gravy. Really.)

LOSERS

Baked Beans

Roast Beef and Mustard

Chicken and Gravy

Smoky Bacon

and Sour Cream

Jell-O (Powder was sprayed on the chips.

Really.)