Undeniable Fact: Chip off the old block

For many years, potato chips were used only as a packing material and were assumed to be not only inedible but toxic. It wasn't until 1712 that Dr. Robert Frist, a physician from North Carolina, discovered that nearly all of the symptoms displayed by patients who had accidentally ingested the chips were in fact psychosomatic. Frist acquired a patent in 1713, but was unable to successfully market them as food due to the stigma left by their previous function (imagine trying to sell Styrofoam as a snack!).

The snack continued to fail in the marketplace until a resurgence in the 1950's. By this time, more cost-effective packing solutions had been developed, and few people knew or cared about the origins of the humble potato chip.