Pringles Proundly Proclaims--"contains no potato."

Pringles Not Chip Off any Potato Block Dept.

The cat is out of the bag can--Pringles, that salty, wavy, addictive potato chip vacuum sealed in a tennis ball can may no more resemble a snack food of potato origin that it does a tennis ball a learned British High Court Judge says.

It turns out Pringles (Which is apparently both the singular and the plural, but not the possessive of whatever kind of Frankenchip (the judge described as "having a shape not found in nature") comes in that vacuum sealed can) is no more composed of potato, legally speaking, than horseradish is made out of horses! In Britain certain snack food actually made from food ("Savoury snacks" defined here by Inland Revenue) is subject to a 17.5% tax if it is made from a vegetable grown in the earth. However, if it is an imitation potato chip that isn't even a good imitation because, as the successor to the Great Wigmore ruled, it doesn't feel like a potato chip, doesn't look like a potato chip, and doesn't taste like a potato chip it isn't a potato chip (or "crisp" as the British prefer to call them).

Applying the great James Whitcomb Riley's legal test to determine what a duck is, the court reasoned that the obverse must also be true (i.e., If it doesn't walk like a duck, quack like a duck, or do AFLAC commercials, it isn't a duck). If a Pringles has no outward resemblance to a potato chip, it cannot be taxed like one. Pringles UK website found here doesn't say they are made from potatoes, but advertises a bountiful example of the artificial flavor maker's art from sour cream to steak and onion flavor. (There was no discussion in the opinion about whether the steak and onion flavored chip has any real steak or onion in it).

The decision in Proctor & Gamble UK and The Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs can be found here.

So what is a Pringles made from? It's made from dough--and because of that, it saved Proctor & Gamble a lot of dough on taxes. Judge Nicholas Warren, heir to a great name in judging, ruled in his own iteration of the Warren Court, that what Pringles are is ---tax exempt.