We Graded Every Chip A–F. One Outsider Embarrassed the Whole Aisle.

Walk the chip aisle and almost everything is the same product in a different bag: fried, refined-carb, salted, near-zero protein. So we ran the lineup through the same 6-dimension Labelgrade we use on everything else, and one outsider broke the pattern — Quest’s engineered protein chip posted a B+ while the household names clustered in the C range, every one of them a refined-carb snack dressed up in marketing. The cheese-dusted Doritos finished dead last, dragged down by sodium and a long additive list. This isn’t 'all chips are bad' — it’s that one of these is a fundamentally different animal, and the receipts say so.

The verdict

Quest Protein Chips Sea Salt towered over the aisle at a B+ (80); cheese-dusted Doritos Nacho Cheese landed dead last at C (63), sunk by sodium and additives — not flavor.

Top of the class B+ Quest Protein Chips Sea Salt 80/100

Bottom of the class C Doritos Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips 63/100

The full report card — all 7 chips, ranked

#	Chip	Grade	Score	Weakest link
1	Quest — Protein Chips Sea Salt	B+	80	fiber (30/100)
2	Fritos — Scoops! Corn Chips	B-	71	fiber (55/100)
3	Tostitos — Original Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips	B-	71	sodium (54/100)
4	SunChips — Harvest Cheddar Multigrain Snacks	C+	69	sodium (29/100)
5	Ruffles — Original Potato Chips	C+	67	sodium (42/100)
6	Lay's — Classic Potato Chips	C+	66	sodium (35/100)
7	Doritos — Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips	C	63	sodium (27/100)

Worth a closer look

The two ends of the list tell the story. Quest Protein Chips Sea Salt tops the class at 80/100 (B+); Doritos Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips anchors the bottom at 63/100 (C). Click any product for its full fact sheet — the six dimension sub-scores, the per-serving label, and what would move its grade. Prefer to slice it yourself? Filter every graded product by the dimension you care about.

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How we graded these

Each product is scored on six dimensions — protein density, ingredient quality, added sugar, sodium, fiber, and saturated fat — combined into a 0–100 score and a letter grade. Every number comes from the product’s own label, verified against USDA FoodData Central. The grade is absolute (relative to all packaged foods), which is why a whole category can land in the same band. See the full methodology. Last graded 2026-06-04.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which chip scored highest?

Quest Protein Chips (Sea Salt) — the only chip here built around protein rather than refined starch — took a clear B+, well ahead of the field. See the ranked table above for the full order and each chip’s weakest dimension.

Why did Doritos Nacho Cheese score lowest?

It’s a fried refined-carb chip like the rest, but the cheese-dusting piles on sodium and a longer additive list, and those are two of our six dimensions. With near-zero protein and no fiber to offset them, the composite settled at the bottom of the set.

Are regular chips actually unhealthy?

Mostly, yes — a C here is honest: fried, refined carbs, lots of sodium, and almost no protein or fiber. That’s a snack, not a food group. The lone exception is the protein chip, which is a genuinely different animal — everything else is a treat best eaten as one.

How is the grade calculated?

Six dimensions — protein density, ingredient quality, added sugar, sodium, fiber, and saturated fat — combine into a 0–100 score and a letter grade. Every number is from the product’s own label, verified against USDA data. Full method on our methodology page.