Doritos as farm-to-table snacks? Big Food, under duress, gets creative

Ah, Doritos: a classic farm-to-table food right up there with heirloom tomatoes, organic roasted chicken, and artisanal cheese boards sourced from local cows greeted each morning by name.

At least that’s what new marketing for the tangy chips seems to imply, with slogans like “PepsiCo partners with farmers to bring Doritos from the field to you” and images of corn seedlings and a farmer, clad in a PepsiCo hat, astride a rusted tractor.

Yet Doritos are famously ultra-processed, the antithesis of the “Eat Real Food” edict rolled out by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as part of his Make America Healthy Again movement to fight chronic disease. Food industry experts say the Doritos ads show the food industry is scrambling to improve its image while avoiding more fundamental changes to the ultra-processed products that make up 60% of the American diet.