Pizza, Antacids Popular New Products

Hold on to your stomachs, folks. Last year’s most popular new products included a self-rising pizza crust and baked potato chips, which may have helped boost three new indigestion drugs into the top-10 list.

“Pizza and chips and antacids - is there some connection there? You tell me,” said Carol Elitov, a vice president at Chicago-based Information Resources Inc., a product-tracking firm.

Luvs Stretch diapers led the top 10 product introductions, with $435 million in sales, followed by Scott 1000 paper products and Pepcid AC.

Many Americans also appeared to be trying to kick the smoking habit by purchasing Nicorette gum, which took fourth place.

That was followed by Baked Lays potato chips, Pampers Premium and Tagamet HB/200. Rounding out the top 10 were Bounty Medleys, DiGiorno self-rising pizza and Zantac 75.

The findings, compiled from grocery scanning information, were part of a series of new studies conducted for the supermarket industry’s annual meeting here through Wednesday.

The studies also may show Americans are merely mouthing words when they say they’re concerned about fat intake. Only 17.7 percent of the average daily diet is low-fat. That, said Elitov, could have implications for such products as the population ages.

“The baby boomer bulge is coming, both literally and figuratively,” she said.