The Moscow Potato Products Combine was built in the capital in 1961 as an experimental enterprise for processing potatoes and producing potato products. In 1963, the first Soviet chips – “Moscow Crispy Potatoes” in slices – appeared on the shelves of Soviet stores. Initially, in the Soviet Union, packs of crispy potatoes were called “chibsy.” This name could be found in dictionaries and official documents, but it did not catch on among the people and transformed into the familiar word for us – chips. Foreign brands of chips, especially from the USA, were not imported into the USSR. Therefore, the Soviet food industry created a product called “Crispy Potatoes.” A pack of Soviet chips cost only 10 kopecks, but not everyone could buy it – the product almost never reached the shelves, except in Moscow and a few other major cities of the Union. For chips, potatoes were carefully selected: varieties with low sugar content were preferred so that the sugar would not turn into caramel during frying, which would spoil the taste and appearance of the product. Instead, the potatoes needed to be high in starch: this way, the chips absorbed less oil during cooking, giving them a rich taste and better shape. Selected potatoes were peeled, sliced into one to two millimeter slices with special machines, and washed in rotating drums. Chips were fried in refined (purified from impurities) oils: not only in sunflower oil, but also in peanut, corn, and cottonseed oils. Soviet chips differed from modern ones by the absence of preservatives, but were still considered by some people to be quite unhealthy. Chips from the USSR had another difference from modern brands – strange additives. In addition to the traditional salt and monosodium glutamate, spicy varieties of cheese, powdered sugar with vanilla, and even jam were added to the potatoes in the Union! The prepared slices were evaluated by several parameters: color (standard – light yellow), smell, and taste. All parameters had to remind the person tasting the chip of real fried potatoes. Soviet technologists advised eating chips with beer, which is still common today. But they also suggested consuming them as a side dish for meat and fish dishes, as an addition to soups and vegetable juices.