Why the Crunch Is the Challenge

Crispy is different from crunchy.

According to a food research firm, fried chicken and potato chips are crispy. By contrast, a harder, denser texture makes nuts and granola crunchy.

Food scientists have a tough time with both when trying to invent a new food.

Food Innovation

McDonald’s

For McDonald’s, the soggy French fry was a challenge from the beginning. During the 1950s, their fries lacked a consistent crunch (or should we say crisp?).  Although suppliers were providing the same russet potatoes and using precisely the same soaking and cooking techniques, still the franchises’ fries varied. Some would be perfect while others were too soft. Finally though, McDonald’s researchers figured out that their potatoes needed three weeks of storage time so that the sugars could turn to starches. In addition, when frying the fries, they had to be sure that the oil temperature did not rise more than three degrees above its lowest point.

Today, trying for more crunch, experimentation continues on the farm. Concluding that too much water makes a limp fry, a potato products maker has been monitoring potatoes’ nutrient levels.

Taco Bell

Meanwhile, Taco Bell’s product developers have also been wrestling with a crunch challenge. Trying to develop a taco shell that is 100 percent cheese, the problem is that it softens too quickly–before a kitchen crew could load it with ground beef and even more cheese. But because market research indicates we love the idea, they’ve been trying for a decade.

Surely they are hoping for the success they’ve had with the (perfectly crunchy) Doritos taco shell. Then, the glitch was how the Dorito orange color spread to everything it touched. The solution was the “paper taco holster.”

Our Bottom Line: Monopolistic Competition

Consumer surveys reveal that we really care about food texture. In one study, 52% of the participants said that their satisfaction depended on the right crispiness or crunch.

As a result, through the crunch (and the crisp) McDonald’s and Taco Bell try to achieve product differentiation. Especially because they compete in a monopolistically competitive market, they have to make themselves better than other fast food chains. As a market structure with many smaller firms that can easily enter and exit, monopolistic competition means that each one needs to stand out.

Having crunchy (or crispy) food helps.

My sources and more: Thanks to the NY Times and WSJ for alerting me to the leap forward in crunch research. From there, we learned about research from this firm and returned to McDonald’s French fry history in a past econlife post.

Please note that today’s featured picture is from Eater.com.