The Forgotten Pizza Snack From The '70s That Deserves A Comeback

The taste of pizza and the texture of crispy potato chips — there hardly sounds like a better crossover. In 1968, General Mills released Pizza Spins, a snack that claimed to have the real, authentic taste of pizza. It featured flavors of tomato, oregano, parmesan, even down to pepper and other classic seasonings. While there is no shortage of pizza-flavored snacks on the market even today, these were apparently the real deal. Anyone who tried them seemed to love them, and hardly a negative — or even neutral — word is said about them.

Pizza saw a boom in the U.S. in the 1960s for a few reasons. Chains were starting up, and delivery services were increasing along with the rise in personal vehicles. As such, people couldn't get enough of this convenient food. General Mills jumped on the bandwagon with its iconic snack, and the following year, Pizza Spins won the Putman Food Award. Mysteriously, however, the product was discontinued by 1975.

These pinwheel-shaped chips may have only been around for under a decade, but they clearly exemplify a time of peak quality and brand loyalty. The bags were actually resealable in order to maintain freshness — a sign that the snack was filling enough to last more than one sitting, and a mark of the care taken to ensure consumers had a consistent, satisfying experience.

How did we get here? How could a product so good have had such a short stint on the market? Well, even General Mills can only speculate. In a customer care correspondence with a fan on the "We miss Pizza Spins!" Facebook group — which has over 400 active members who reminisce over the snack even 50 years later — General Mills wrote: "This product has been discontinued and is no longer available. This could be for a variety of reasons, ranging from insufficient consumer demand to ingredients no longer available or other supply chain constraints, whereby it's just no longer feasible for us to offer the product with the high quality and competitive pricing that consumers know and expect."

Of course, discontinuation is an unfortunate side of the food industry. Ben & Jerry's various discontinued flavors have left a hole in many a heart and freezer, and General Mills was responsible for a host of much-missed candies from the '90s that many wish would make a comeback.

General Mills acknowledged that Pizza Spins were born from a trending flavor, and it released a few snacks around the same time that closely mirrored other popular tastes (the only remaining of which is Bugles). These snacks marked the company's entry into the snack industry, as it had previously focused on cereals. It's highly likely that Pizza Spins were never intended to be permanent, and their cult following, though unexpected, is appreciated.