H-E-B Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper Kettle Cooked Potato Chips — ENGINEERED

Name: H-E-B Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper Kettle Cooked Potato Chips
Brand: H-E-B

Munch or Dump rates H-E-B Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper Kettle Cooked Potato Chips by H-E-B ENGINEERED — score 30/90.

Under the 'kettle cooked, old-fashioned' framing sits a formulated chip: rice flour and cane sugar in the coating, plus yeast extract doing MSG's umami job. It hits the sugar plus refined-oil plus refined-starch craving triad. Tasty, but built for the next handful, not a plain potato-and-salt chip.

Why this verdict

Hyper-palatable snack triad: cane sugar + vegetable oil + rice flour
Yeast extract is a natural glutamate flavor enhancer, doing MSG's job without the MSG label
Added rice flour and cane sugar make this more formulated than a simple kettle chip
'No artificial flavors' is technically true but leans on yeast and spice extracts for its savory punch

Ingredients (10)

potatoes (safe) — Whole-food base; the entire chip is essentially sliced potato.
Vegetable oil (cottonseed/sunflower/safflower) (moderate) — Refined frying oil; high in omega-6 and calorie-dense.
rice flour (moderate) — Refined starch that completes the fast-carb triad.
Cane Sugar (moderate) — Added sugar in the breadcrumb — one of two distinct sweeteners in the list.
Sea Salt (moderate) — The only seasoning; pushes sodium high for the portion size but nothing artificial.
black pepper (safe) — Whole spice seasoning.
GARLIC POWDER (safe) — Real seasoning.
ONION POWDER (safe) — Dehydrated seasoning.
YEAST EXTRACT (moderate) — Natural source of free glutamate used as a savory flavor enhancer — a mild sign of engineered taste.
SPICE EXTRACT (safe) — Concentrated natural spice flavoring.