Cheetos is a brand of cheese-flavored puffed corn snacks produced by Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo. Invented in 1948 by Charles Elmer Doolin using an idle cornmeal extruder, it grew into a global brand with annual retail sales reaching roughly $4 billion. Its success catalyzed the historic business merger that created modern snack giant Frito-Lay.
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In 1948, Fritos creator Charles Elmer Doolin had a problem: his industrial cornmeal extruder was sitting idle. He decided to blast cornmeal through the machine to see what would happen.
The result was a crunchy, puffed shape that, when coated in cheese, became an instant sensation.
The orange powder that coats your fingers after eating them is more than just a mess. It has an official, trademarked name: cheetle.
The brand leaned into the phenomenon so hard they even released a book of recipes using the dust as a seasoning.
Cheetos were so successful that Doolin needed a distribution partner to go national. He teamed up with potato chip mogul Herman W. Lay.
The partnership was so profitable that in 1961, the two companies officially merged to form the snack giant Frito-Lay, now owned by PepsiCo.
Crunchy Cheetos was the brand's only product for 23 years until Cheetos Puffs debuted in 1971. The original test batches were cooked in Dallas, Texas, by Frito creator Charles Elmer Doolin.
To distribute the snack nationwide, Doolin partnered with Herman W. Lay in 1948. Their companies merged in 1961 to form Frito-Lay, which merged with The Pepsi-Cola Company in 1965 to form PepsiCo, turning Cheetos into an international product.
By 2010, Cheetos had expanded to 21 distinct variants in the United States alone, including baked options and Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
In 1994, Cheetos became the first American snack food brand manufactured and sold in China. Because the original cheese flavor performed poorly with local focus groups, Frito-Lay introduced Savory American Cream and Zesty Japanese Steak instead.
Cheetos adapts its recipes across more than 36 countries to match local tastes. Japan has seen releases like Strawberry Cheetos coated in icing, as well as Pepsi and Mountain Dew flavors, while India introduced Cheetos Whoosh made with whole grains and vegetables.
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No, Elmer's Chee Wee's were created earlier in 1933. Cheetos was invented in 1948, though it later grew to become the top-selling cheese puff brand in the United States.
Sweetos, a cinnamon sugar-flavored snack released in 2015, was the first sweet variety sold in the United States. It arrived 67 years after the brand launched.
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