Doritos to create crunch-free chips for women

PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi wants the company to develop snack designed specifically for women in order to resolve one of the ''least favourite'' things about the snacks.

Speaking in a recent interview with WNYC's Freakonomics, Nooyi elaborated on the different ways that men and women eat chips. Men "lick their fingers with great glee, and when they reach the bottom of the bag they pour the little broken pieces into their mouth, because they don't want to lose that taste of the flavour, and the broken chips in the bottom," Nooyi said.

"Women would love to do the same, but they don't," she continued. "They don't like to crunch too loudly in public. And they don't lick their fingers generously and they don't like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavour into their mouth."

Freaknonomics host Stephen Dubner asked Nooyi if Pepsico is developing a "male and female version of chips."

Nooyi responded, "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. For women, low-crunch, the full-taste profile, not have so much of the flavour stick on the fingers, and how can you put it in a purse? Because women love to carry a snack in their purse."

The ''low-crunch'' triangular snacks will even come in special packs specifically designed to fit into women's handbags.

Women's groups quickly slammed the move as a ''tired gender stereotype.''

A spokesman from the Women's Equality Party said, ''Companies that perpetuate these tired gender stereotypes will continue to lose out on the single biggest consumer group: women.

''No doubt some male consumers will welcome the chance to have a bigger package. But the idea of shrinking products for women, no doubt for the same price, is as old as the Ad Men making these decisions.''