Making good on a promise to merge fruit, veggies and snacking, Frito-Lay Inc. said Monday that it will launch a line of snack crisps to attract health-conscious consumers.

Frito-Lay

Frito-Lay will introduce its Flat Earth line in February.

The Flat Earth snack line, the Plano-based PepsiCo unit's first new homegrown brand in 15 years, will be available in February in flavor combinations including garlic and herb, tomato ranch and peach mango.

"More than half of us are struggling to get enough fruits and vegetables into our diets," Al Carey, the snack division's president and chief executive, told analysts. "Fruit and vegetable chips are the next frontier."

In addition to the fruits and vegetables, the crisps will be made from rice and potatoes.

A 1-ounce serving of the crisps – just shy of a typical vending-machine-size bag – will contain a quarter-cup serving of fruits or vegetables, the company said.

The crisps, which will initially be sold in 6-ounce bags, are similar in fat and calorie content to other Frito-Lay baked goods.

Each 28-gram serving has less than 5 grams of fat and about 130 calories. By comparison a 31.8-gram bag of Baked Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream chips has 4 grams of fat and 140 calories.

And a 42.5-gram bag of Classic Lay's potato chips has 230 calories and 15 grams of fat, with 4.5 grams of saturated fat. Later this year, when Frito-Lay switches to sunflower oil, levels of saturated fat will drop.

Frito-Lay has been hinting at plans for a snack line featuring vegetables and fruit since 2004, when PepsiCo announced plans to tag healthier snacks and drinks with a green Smart Spot label.

Snack makers and restaurateurs have been in the cross hairs for several years as health woes related to eating habits have climbed.

PepsiCo, based in Purchase, N.Y., is also the nation's second-largest maker of soft drinks and grew largely on the popularity of sugary sodas and salty snacks.

Seeking to remake its image, the company now gets 15 percent of its revenue from Smart Spot products.

"We want to make healthy snacking our top priority and make a healthy improvement to our core [product] mix," Mr. Carey said in the morning meeting with analysts.

PepsiCo shares gained 37 cents to close at $63.18 in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

John Webster, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, said he was not familiar with the new line.

But he said the agency is pleased that so many food companies are reformulating their products to be healthier for the public.

"We hope these efforts are continued over time," he said, citing increased use of heart-healthy oils and whole grains.

Lona Sandon, a Dallas-based spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, sees snacks like the new Frito-Lay line as an improvement over munchies with a heavier fat and calorie count.

But she still sees a better alternative for getting your "five a day" servings of fruits and veggies.

"Overall, in the grand scheme of things, this is better than a full-fat potato chip, so it's a step in the right direction," said Ms. Sandon, an assistant professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. "But if you have the choice between that and the real thing, go with the real thing."

E-mail krobinson@dallasnews.com