A Brooklyn-based art collective is launching a line of chips with flavor inspired by foods banned in the United States in its latest artistic statement on food productionThese are the consumption norms.
Flavors include horse meat and fugu (poison blowfish), as well as casu marzu (maggot) The project is called “illegal chips,” although consuming the chips is still 100% legal, the company promises.
“Chips can taste like anything. Why is it that chip companies don’t have the imagination to create flavors we can eat in real-life? We wanted to expand the palate and give people a taste that they will never experience anywhere else,” says Dan Greenberg, Chief Revenue Officer of MSCHF, the art collective behind the “illegal” chips.
Given recent events, the project was very difficult to complete. supply chain challengesAccording to Greenberg, this is especially true when creating unorthodox chip seasonings.
Greenberg stated that “doing anything that involves food takes a while; it’s regulated (something MSCHF doesn’t traditionally play in).” “It’s also very difficult to create a new potato chips flavor from scratch. And then it’s even harder to do that three times.” It took many rounds to test, sample, and taste. They are now delicious, even though the first round was interesting.
MSCHF is known for its provocative statements about societal norms and luxury goods.
“The distinction between food animal and non-food animal is a social construct. The same, of course, can be said of law in general,” MSCHF said in its manifesto on the illegal chips.
Despite the flavors, the chips don’t contain any meat products. Vegan flavors for horse meat and fugu are available. Casu marzu is also vegan.
The project also aims to highlight the negative environmental effects of raising animals for meat consumption.
This comes on the tail of a global climate dealThe United Nations climate negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland ended on Saturday. While the deal is focused on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and averting catastrophic global warming, the pledges won’t be enough to limit a planetary temperature rise to a key 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold.
►Results of the COP26 Climate Conference: COP26 climate deal boosts global emissions pledges but falls short on 1.5 degrees Celsius target
A September peer-reviewed journal Nature published a study that found that global greenhouse gas emissions are twice as high from animal-based foods than they are from plant-based foods. MSCHF said in its manifesto that it hopes to demonstrate the possibility of a “fully-synthetic luxury omnivorism” with the illegal chips.
This year, MSCHF collaborated with rapper Lil Nas X on the incendiary Satan Shoes, a modified Nike Air Max 97s that features satanic symbolism. Only 666 pairs went on sale for $1,018, a reference to Luke 10:18, a Bible verse about Satan’s fall from heaven. According to MSCHF the shoes were immediately sold out.
The collective sold 1,000 Andy Warhol sketches at $250 each in another “drop,” as MSCHF calls it. Only one of the sketches was authentic, while the other 999 copies were duplicates of the original. The fakes were mixed in with the original, without any differentiation or certificate.
►MSCHF’s Andy Warhol drop: 1,000 Andy Warhol sketches will be sold for $250 each. The catch? 999 are forgeries.
When asked about the inspiration for “Illegal Chips” by USA TODAY, Greenberg responded: “It was too hard to get a horse burger in the states. This seemed simpler.
Follow Michelle Shen on Twitter @michelle_shen10.
