Gluten-free chips are a high-protein snack made with egg whites

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Intelligent Protein Snacks, known as ips, are gluten-free, high-protein chips made with egg whites and corn.
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on September 12, 2013 at 7:54 AM, updated October 28, 2013 at 10:32 PM

The world of snack chips has exploded with options beyond the staples of potatoes and corn.

There are chips made of beans from white to black, root veggies like parsnips and yuca, seeds such as flax or quinoa, and fruit like apples or bananas.

But a chip made of eggs is something totally new.

Sean Olson says his kids are the typical picky eaters and when they developed a taste for the crisp edges of his breakfast eggs cooked sunny side up, an idea for a new kind of snack chip was born.

With his background in semiconductors, he figured out a basic way to make chips from a blend of mostly egg whites and non-GMO corn. The process evolved to create Olson's patent-pending pressure-puffs where the blend is cooked under pressure, toasted to dry and then coated with a little oil so the seasonings -- sea salt and black pepper, aged white cheddar, barbecue or cinnamon-sugar -- will stay put. He calls them ips, which stands for Intelligent Protein Snacks.

To an informed taster (me), the flavor of the cheddar chip was something like a crunchy omelette, and the salt and pepper chips definitely have the most discernible egg flavor.

An unofficial ips taste test at an area high school lunch table brought mixed results. While the uninformed tasters could not figure out the chip's most unusual ingredient, the cheddar and cinnamon-sugar flavors were preferred. While the chips were mostly described as “pretty good,” tasters said they'd eat them if they were available, but would be unlikely to seek them specifically.

As with most alternative chips, the appeal here is dietary. A 1-ounce bag has 7 grams of protein for its 130 calories, meaning just under 25 percent of its calories are derived from protein. No artificial colors, flavorings or preservatives are used in these gluten-free chips.

In addition to those eating a gluten-free diet, Olson believes the chips will appeal to snackers aiming for a diet with more protein and fewer of the refined carbs so frequently found in more traditional chips. A note on the carbohydrate comparison: While the ips website compares its fats per serving (4 grams) to fried chips, the carb count is compared to higher-carb baked potato chips. There really isn't a significant reduction in carbohydrate per serving, however, when compared to fried chips, which like ips have about 15 grams per serving.

But 7 grams of protein is still impressive. “Protein is a little harder to digest and gives you more of a feeling of being full,” Olson adds.

He intends to start shopping his chips in the East next year. For now, they are available in stores in California, where the company is based, and online at A 8-bag variety pack with two 1-ounce bags of each flavor is $15.99, including $4 for shipping and handling.