When local goes corporate

The idea of buying and eating local is one of the most easily identifiable food trends. There’s been an explosion in farmer’s markets, farm-to-table dinners/restaurants and a series of articles, movies and books trying to teach people to ask questions about where their food is grown or made.

But invariably when a grassroots movement (pun slightly intended) enters the zeitgeist, corporations quickly follow. In this case, we’ve gone from born-on dates and use-by stamps to location codes allowing customers to see where a product originated.

As Fat City noted back in May, Frito Lay has announced a “Chip Tracker,”

designed to let people enter their Zip code and a three-digit product

code to find out where a given bag of potato chips was born. All of this is part of Frito Lay’s effort to focus on the healthy elements of eating chips, because, as the Web site says, “snacking is an important part of a healthy diet.”