EL PASO, Texas (KVIA)– PepsiCo Foods has released a new product aimed at fans of its iconic snack who may want less mess and fewer artificial ingredients. The company\u2019s new Cheetos Simply NKD removed the familiar red dye while keeping the signature Flamin\u2019 Hot flavor.<\/p>\n
At first glance, the chips look noticeably different. Pale in color and lacking the trademark red dust, they don\u2019t resemble the classic Flamin\u2019 Hot Cheetos many consumers recognize, but PepsiCo says the flavor remains the same.<\/p>\n
To test that claim, ABC-7 put 11 staff members to the test in a blind taste test, comparing traditional Flamin\u2019 Hot Cheetos with the new dye-free version.<\/p>\n
Out of the 11 participants, four correctly identified the traditional Cheetos. Four chose the wrong option, and others couldn’t decide.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say this one has the dye,\u201d Andrew Polksaid.<\/p>\n
Sarah Coria hesitated, saying, \u201cThese don\u2019t taste as good, these taste better, but that makes me think these are the fake ones.\u201d self-described \u201cHot Cheetos connoisseur\u201d ultimately admitted enjoying both.<\/p>\n
Experts say growing interest in dye-free foods comes amid broader conversations about health. Some health professionals point to increases in conditions such as ADHD, aggressive behavior and gastrointestinal diseases, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re certainly seeing an increase in the incidence of these diseases,\u201d one expert said.<\/p>\n
Some pediatricians believe artificial red dye may play a role, particularly given how early children are exposed to brightly colored snack foods.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at young people\u2019s foods Cheetos are everywhere,\u201d Dr. Vinay Patel, gastroenterologist with UMC said. \u201cThey\u2019re delicious. We all eat them. But for younger generations, they start eating these foods very early in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the change in appearance, taste testers were surprised when the blindfolds came off.<\/p>\n
PepsiCo says the new Simply Naked Cheetos are not meant to replace the original product. Instead, they are being offered as an additional option, joining other snacks in the company\u2019s lineup that have recently received updated looks or ingredient changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KVIA)– PepsiCo Foods has released a new product aimed at fans of its iconic snack…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-93931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}