Japanese snack giant resorts to black-and-white bags of potato chips as Iran War literally sucks color out of the world

The biggest snack maker in Japan is making some of its packaging black and white as the Iran war disrupts the market for a key material used to produce printing inks. 

Calbee, which controls half of Japan’s snacks market but also does business in the U.S., said in a press release Tuesday that several of its potato chip products, as well as its Kappa Ebisen shrimp-flavored snacks and its Frugra fruit and granola mix, will switch to monochromatic packaging because of “supply instability affecting certain raw materials amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East.”

The company said while the products themselves will be unaffected, the measure will be applied to select packaging on May 25 to “help maintain a stable supply of products.” 

The company’s announcement comes as the Iran war continues to disrupt supply chains worldwide, especially for petroleum-based products, thanks to the........

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