Popular American snack Doritos to get 'lady-friendly' version

NEW DELHI: Popular American snack

Doritos

will soon receive a "lady-friendly" makeover, news reports have revealed.


This upcoming version of the tortilla chips, produced by

PepsiCo

's

Frito-Lay

, will be quieter to eat and less messy, too. Conventional Doritos chips are known to have a loud crunch and crumb dust.

What's more, the snack will come in packs designed especially to fit into women's handbags. But it is not yet clear what these new chips will look like.

"It's not a male and female as much as 'are there snacks for women that can be designed and packaged differently?' And yes, we are looking at it, and we're getting ready to launch a bunch of them soon," PepsiCo's global chief executive Indra Nooyi reportedly said about the move.

While Nooyi admitted that women - like men - "would love to crunch crisps loudly, lick their fingers and pour crumbs from the bag into their mouth afterwards," they would rather not do so "in public," reported The Sun.

"They (women) don't like to crunch too loudly in public. And they don't lick their fingers," New York Post quoted her as saying.

However, the move is facing flak from some quarters.

Women's campaigners have criticised the initiative as a "tired gender stereotype", reported IANS. They further predicted that the company's move would lead it to lose out "on the single biggest consumer group: women."

Reactions on social media ranged from annoyance to amusement and even disbelief.

One Twitter user advised Doritos to not buy into "sexist ideal(sic)" - a view echoed repeatedly.

Another wanted to know: "What's a Dorito that doesn't crackle".



(With inputs from agencies)