Go Ahead, Freeze Your Potato Chips And Thank Us Later
When you're in the mood for a salty snack, there's nothing quite like a bag of your favorite flavored potato chips to satisfy that savory craving. What's not to love about a crunchy, salty, portable snack that's easy to eat and exists in a multitude of varieties? Potato chips go beyond the most popular snack foods of the last 10 decades and have become a staple in most American households.
If you ever wondered how potato chips were able to reach elite status among snackers across the nation, better packaging in the mid-1900s helped pave the way. When potato chips first came on the scene, they were difficult to store and often placed in bulk containers, which didn't make them convenient or long-lasting. In 1926, one woman from California even began sealing wax chip bags with an iron to prevent spoilage. Then, in 1958, the plastic aluminum bags we're all too familiar with took hold and began housing our favorite potato-based snacks due to their ability to keep food fresher for a longer period of time.
While these advancements in chip packaging allow us to take our most loved snacks with us wherever we go, we do need to do some work on our end to make sure we strive to keep them fresh once opened. Before we uncover why you might want to freeze your next bag of potato chips, let's discuss the general guidelines around potato chip storage.
Storing potato chips for maximum freshness
Whether you choose barbeque or one of the world's 30 wildest potato chip flavors, you want to make sure that beloved bag lasts as long as possible. Potato chips are best stored in a cool dry place away from any outside air or sunlight like a dark pantry shelf. If you want to be extra safe, store any leftover chips in a resealable plastic bag or hard container to make sure no outside air is penetrating those crispy, salty morsels, changing that addictive crunchy texture for the worse.
Of course, you can always buy a pack of chip clips to keep additional air out. Yet those pesky clips always seem to find their way to the dark, unknown places in your kitchen, never available when you actually need one. Luckily there are plenty of different folding methods you can follow to seal up your favorite bag of chips. Whichever storage method you decide to use, the most crucial factor is to remove any outside oxygen in your chip bag before resealing. Did you know the air within a closed chip bag is actually nitrogen gas? Once exposed to external oxygen, the oils used to crisp your favorite snack begin to degrade which in turn, affects the overall flavor of the product. Believe it or not, if you want your chips to retain that mouthwatering texture and flavor, you may want to throw them in your freezer.
Why your freezer may be the best place to store potato chips
Beyond your love for homemade potato chips, you probably resign to buying a bag or two at the grocery store most of the time. Sure you can painstakingly attempt to create a perfect seal each and every time you grab a few handfuls of your favorite snack and honestly, you should keep doing so. Yet besides throwing the enclosed bag in your pantry you may want to start storing your potato chips in your freezer.
In terms of longevity, a standard unopened bag of potato chips can last up to three weeks beyond their expiration date. If you keep an open bag of potato chips on your kitchen counter away from sunlight or tucked away in a cabinet, they typically last one to two weeks, depending on how well they're stored. If you not only want to extend their shelf life but ensure that crispy, flavor-filled texture every time you reach for some, storing chips in your freezer is the safest bet. When commercialized chips are made, most of the moisture from potatoes is removed, so you don't run any risk of making your chips limp or soggy. Storing them in the freezer not only extends their shelf life but makes them a tad crispier. If you don't love the sound of ice-cold chips, just remember to remove them from the freezer for a short while before digging in.