1
00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:07,240
Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,

2
00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:11,280
Speaker 1: Lauren bog Obam. Here, chances are you probably haven't given

3
00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:14,040
Speaker 1: much thought to any given can of Pringles other than

4
00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:16,680
Speaker 1: wondering how do I get the last few potato chips

5
00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:19,840
Speaker 1: out of the tube. As it turns out, this salty

6
00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:22,680
Speaker 1: snack has quite a story. It once was in the

7
00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:25,759
Speaker 1: middle of a massive controversy that questioned the ingredients and

8
00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:30,280
Speaker 1: whether the chips were actually potato chips at all. From

9
00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:32,760
Speaker 1: two thousand seven to two thousand nine, the makers of

10
00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:35,280
Speaker 1: the Once You Pop, you Can't stop chips stood in

11
00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:38,560
Speaker 1: front of three different levels of the British judiciary trying

12
00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:42,080
Speaker 1: to defend the decision that Pringles chips were not by definition,

13
00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:47,760
Speaker 1: potato chips, or, in British parlance, potato crisps. Here's how

14
00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:52,000
Speaker 1: this comically complicated problem started. In the mid twentieth century,

15
00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:54,480
Speaker 1: at tax was borne by way of France and England,

16
00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:58,680
Speaker 1: called the value added tax. This consumption tax started off

17
00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:01,440
Speaker 1: as a ten percent tax on all goods bought from

18
00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:05,280
Speaker 1: a business. More than of the world's tax revenue comes

19
00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:08,080
Speaker 1: from the value added tax, making it a pretty big deal.

20
00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:12,520
Speaker 1: In Britain. Most foods are exempt from the value added

21
00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:16,240
Speaker 1: tax except for potato chips or similar products made from

22
00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:19,840
Speaker 1: the potato or from potato flour. This led to a

23
00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:23,039
Speaker 1: long arduous journey to figure out whether or not pringles,

24
00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:25,560
Speaker 1: which by the way, were once touted as the new

25
00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:29,800
Speaker 1: fangled potato chip, were actually potato chips. If they were

26
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:33,400
Speaker 1: ruled as chips, Pringle's parent company at the time, Proctoring Gamble,

27
00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:36,600
Speaker 1: would be subject to a seventeen point five percent value

28
00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:41,880
Speaker 1: added tax. Proctoring Gamble's initial argument was that no pringles

29
00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:45,160
Speaker 1: were not potato chips because they didn't quote contain enough

30
00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:50,120
Speaker 1: potato to have the quality of potato nous. They also

31
00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:52,960
Speaker 1: argued pringles didn't resemble the shape of a potato chip

32
00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:57,880
Speaker 1: and were therefore instead a savory snack. In two eight

33
00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:00,760
Speaker 1: a Lower British court agreed and ruled the pringles were

34
00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:04,080
Speaker 1: in fact not potato chips, mainly because they contain only

35
00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:08,320
Speaker 1: potato and had a quote shape not found in nature.

36
00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:11,800
Speaker 1: The rest of pringles, by the way, is mostly wheat, starch,

37
00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:16,680
Speaker 1: and flowers of corn rice and again potato. But just

38
00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:18,959
Speaker 1: a year later, in two thousand nine, the Court of

39
00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:23,120
Speaker 1: Appeal re examined and reversed that decision, calling Procter and

40
00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:26,000
Speaker 1: Gamble's argument that the ingredients of a product don't define

41
00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:31,079
Speaker 1: the product quote hogwash. But with that decision, the Behemoth

42
00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:34,200
Speaker 1: Corporation had to pay a hundred and sixty million dollars

43
00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:38,720
Speaker 1: in taxes while begrudgingly calling their new fangled potato chips

44
00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:43,080
Speaker 1: well potato chips. And that is the story of Pringles

45
00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:46,040
Speaker 1: and its brief dance with the intersecting worlds of taxation,

46
00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:54,440
Speaker 1: junk food, and British judges. Today's episode was written by

47
00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:57,359
Speaker 1: Jerby Glass and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is

48
00:02:57,360 --> 00:02:59,560
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For

49
00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:01,880
Speaker 1: more on us and lots of other fun don't stop topics,

50
00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:04,640
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com and

51
00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:06,960
Speaker 1: for more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I

52
00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:09,720
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

53
00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:10,560
Speaker 1: your favorite shows,