Can you eat expired SunChips?

Sun Chips are a fun twist between a wavy tortilla chip and a tasty potato chip. I am a huge fan and love the Garden Salsa flavor!

Occasionally, I do see Sun Chips on sale for a really good price and I want to stock up. Unfortunately, I have over bought these tasty chips and ended up with an expired bag or two.

Pro Tip: When purchasing Sun Chips on sale, try to estimate how many bags you will eat over the next 6 months. Typically speaking this will make sure they stay fresh tasting and not go stale before you can eat them.

Let’s find out everything we need to know about expired Sun Chips and if they are okay to eat after the expiration date on the bag!

Are Sun Chips potato chips?

Sun Chips are not potato chips because they are made out of corn, whole wheat, and brown rice flour. Traditional potato chips are made out of potatoes!

One of the many reasons that people choose Sun Chips over regular potato chips is for the possible health benefits. Sun Chips have a whopping 48 grams of whole wheat, no artificial flavors or preservatives, and on average they have 30% less fat than potato chips.

Now with any snack food, moderation is definitely key. If you eat a whole bag of Sun Chips a day, I doubt any doctor would label that as healthy.

On the other hand, switching out regular chips for Sun Chips with your lunch could improve your daily whole grains intake!

How long are Sun Chips good after expiration date?

Sun Chips are packaged very similarly to regular potato chips by coming in a bag that is sealed with Nitrogen gas. This gas helps keep the chips safe from breaking and also helps extend the shelf life.

Typically bags of chips sold in the grocery stores, have an expiration date or “best by” date of about 3 months after you purchase them. As it gets closer to the expiration date, you will notice the bag seems less full even though it has not been opened.

This is because over time the nitrogen gas starts to slowly leak from the bag and the bag is no longer feeling full. As this gas slowly leaves, the odds of the chips tasting stale or not as fresh will start to increase.

On average, you can safely eat Sun Chips 3-6 months after they expire with conditions. If the bag has not been opened and the bag is not completely flat, then the Sun Chips will taste perfectly fine.

Overtime, you may notice a slightly rancid smell in the expired chips, but this is actually the oil that is used to fry the chips. The actual chips can last a long time, but the oil does tend to break down.

This leaves a smell similar to burnt oil or plastic. It just smells off and wrong. If your chips have this odd smell, you could still eat them, but they will taste awful.

What are the black specks on Sun Chips?

Sun Chips occasionally have black specks on them that is more noticeable at certain times. Not every bag gets them, so this has led people to believe that their chips have started to grow mold.

That is not the case! These little black specks on Sun Chips are not mold! They are actually a part of the corn kernel that naturally has a black hue. This hue can change with different crops and different years based on growing conditions of the corn.

Those black spots are actually proof that Sun Chips are made with natural corn. Other corn products like hard taco shells, Fritos Corn Chips, tortilla chips, Pirate Booty (Puff Corn), and cornbread mix have these same black specks.

What happens if you eat expired sun chips?

So, you get up late at night and grab a bag of Sun Chips from the far back corner of the pantry. It’s too dark to see the expiration date, but the next morning you notice that they were expired. Will you get sick?

The odds are extremely low that eating expired Sun Chips will make you sick. Worst case scenario they just taste stale or slightly less than a fresh bag of Sun Chips.

The only way a bag of Sun Chips would cause any kind of food poisoning or tummy troubles is if the bag was punctured or opened. An expired bag of Sun Chips that are not opened will not be contaminated with mold or bacteria.

The nitrogen gas inside the bag helps protect the chips from being exposed to or growing mold and bacteria. It is possible to open a bag of chips where the oil inside has gone rancid, but there is a distinct odor or burnt oil.

Not only is the smell unpleasant but the taste is pretty awful as well. Thankfully, you won’t want to eat anymore so the odds of getting sick from rancid oil are pretty low.

As long as your bag of Sun Chips is still sealed, you can safely eat them up to 6 months after the expiration date. (As long as they smell fine!) The oil inside the chips can go rancid due to extreme temperature changes and this is not something you can visually see unfortunately. This is usually detected by smell or taste.

For more information on expired foods, check out “Can I eat expired Wheat Thins?” and “Can I eat expired Frosted Mini Wheats?“