Before they could go national, a war had already begun brewing over this new wave in food science. The food industry saw BIG money. The common belief was that the first fast food chain to begin using it for their fries was going to double their sales, and that it could be a BILLION-dollar industry

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In 1997, Lay's rolled "Lay's Max" , the first potato chip made with olestra into three test markets: Eau Claire, WI Grand Junction, CO, and Cedar Rapids, IA.

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P&G, which had spent over $200 million developing olestra, were determined to get that money back, and got to work, developing a line of snacks with Frito-Lay, who felt no shame about including the required warning label, believing customers would be too excited about fat free chips to really care

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Proctor & Gamble trademarked Olestra under the name "Olean", to which they added vitamins A, E, D, and K around the core ingredients of sugar and vegetable oil, and began shopping it around. While negotiations dragged on with McDonald's, Nabisco, and Keebler, Frito-Lay jumped in IMMEDIATELY

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Proctor and Gamble agreed, but were somewhat disappointed about needing the warning label. They argued that they had spent five years conducting long and short-term testing, and had worked hard to eliminate "cramping, flatulence, and intestinal leaking." But the FDA said no label, no go.

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