Olestra has always had consumers worried about side effects. (Class of 2017, #53)

One of the problems with generating a list of “cultural touchstones” by looking at newspapers from 18 years ago is that they don’t tell you what will happen in the next 18 years.

Olestra is apparently still found in some foods, but it has not been a successful product.

According to a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest:

As of 2002, olestra is a moribund, if not totally dead, product. Procter and Gamble announced several years ago that it would not seek FDA approval to use olestra is products other than snack foods. In February 2002, P&G even sold its Cincinnati olestra factory to Twin Rivers Technologies of Quincy, Massachusetts, though P&G retained the Olean brand name. Finally, sales of Frito-Lay’s WOW chips and Fat-Free Pringles crisps have declined steadily. Sales of WOW have declined more than 60 percent since their peak.

That doesn’t seem like much of a “cultural touchstone.”

Center for Science in the Public Interest. “A Brief History of Olestra.”