50 free Junk Food trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
43 free junk food trivia questions with answers. These junk food trivia questions and answers cover the snacks, sweets and sodas that fill the middle aisles: potato chips and the Saratoga legend, the saddle-shaped maths of a Pringle, how Doritos were invented at Disneyland, why Twinkies used to be banana-flavoured, the Oreo's forgotten rival, and the drugstore origins of Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Dr Pepper. It also stops at Spam, Cup Noodles, Nutella, Krispy Kreme, Cracker Jack, nachos, corn dogs, Mountain Dew, Red Bull and the deep-fried Mars bar. Easy questions work for family and office quizzes; the harder ones on dates, inventors and lawsuits will test devoted snackers. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Legend says cook George Crum invented potato chips in 1853 in which New York resort town?
Saratoga Springs
The story is now known to be untrue, but 'Saratoga Chips' stayed a common name into the mid-20th century.
Q 02The saddle shape of a Pringles chip is known mathematically as what?
A hyperbolic paraboloid
P&G chemist Fredric Baur spent two years developing the shape and chose the tube; his ashes were later buried in a Pringles can.
Q 03In a 2008 London case, P&G argued Pringles were not crisps because the potato content was only what?
42%
They also argued the shape 'is not found in nature'; the Court of Appeal reversed the ruling in 2009 and the VAT bill stood.
Q 04Doritos were first created in the early 1960s at a restaurant inside which theme park?
Disneyland
Casa de Fritos in Anaheim made them from leftover tortillas; they went national in 1966 in a single flavour, Toasted Corn.
Q 05Which snack, invented by Fritos creator Charles Elmer Doolin in 1948, is fronted by Chester Cheetah?
Cheetos
Chester first appeared in TV ads in 1986; the Flamin' Hot version was developed at Frito-Lay's Texas headquarters from 1989.
Q 06What flavour cream did Twinkies originally contain when they were invented in 1930?
Banana
Wartime banana rationing forced the switch to vanilla, which proved so popular that banana never fully returned.
Q 07What was a Twinkie's maximum shelf life before stronger preservatives were added in 2012?
26 days
Preservatives pushed it to 45 days; a Hostess executive told the New York Times most Twinkies were on shelves for only 7 to 10 days.
Q 08The Oreo, launched in 1912, was originally an imitation of which cookie introduced four years earlier?
Hydrox
Oreo so outstripped its rival that most people now assume Hydrox is the knock-off.
Q 09Which pharmacist invented Coca-Cola in Atlanta in 1886?
John Pemberton
A morphine-addicted Confederate veteran, he was looking for a substitute for the drug; Asa Candler bought the rights in 1888.
Q 10In what year did Coca-Cola launch the disastrous 'New Coke' formula?
1985
Taste tests actually favoured it, but nostalgia won; Coca-Cola Classic returned 79 days later.
Q 11Pepsi was first sold in 1893 in New Bern, North Carolina, under what name?
Brad's Drink
Caleb Bradham promoted it as an aid to digestion, and early ads called it 'The Pepsin Drink'.
Q 12Dr Pepper was created in the 1880s at a drugstore soda fountain in which Texas city?
Waco
Customers at Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store originally ordered it by asking for 'a Waco'.
Q 13Mountain Dew's name was originally 19th-century slang for what?
Whiskey
Tennessee bottlers Barney and Ally Hartman created it in the 1940s as a bourbon mixer, and early labels showed a barefoot hillbilly with a jug.
Q 21Nutella was launched in 1964 by which Italian company?
Ferrero
Pietro Ferrero's bakery was in Alba, a hazelnut town; the spread began life in 1951 as a solid block called Supercrema gianduja.
Q 22Krispy Kreme opened its first store in 1937 in which North Carolina city?
Winston-Salem
Vernon Rudolph picked the city because his favourite cigarette brand, Camel, was headquartered there.
Q 23Hanson Gregory claimed to have invented which snack shape in 1847, aged 16, aboard a lime-trading ship?
The ring doughnut
Washington Irving had described 'dough-nuts' as balls of sweetened dough fried in hog's fat back in 1809.
Q 14Red Bull was adapted from Krating Daeng, an energy drink popular with truck drivers in which country?
Thailand
Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz tried it on a business trip and said it cured his jet lag; the name means 'red gaur'.
Q 15Kool-Aid, invented by Edwin Perkins in 1927, is the official soft drink of which state?
Nebraska
Perkins created the powder in Hastings by dehydrating a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack to save on shipping.
Q 16Which convenience store chain has sold Slurpees since a 1966 licensing deal with the Icee Company?
7-Eleven
Its 1990s 'brain freeze' ads by the Brothers Quay were based on a 19th-century photograph of a contortionist.
Q 17Which US state has the highest per-capita consumption of Spam, buying about 7 million cans a year?
Hawaii
Spam musubi, a slice on rice wrapped in nori, is a local staple; the meat is made in Austin, Minnesota, 'Spam Town USA'.
Q 18Which company introduced Spam on July 5, 1937?
Hormel
The company says the meaning of the name is known only to a few former executives; 'spiced ham' is the popular guess.
Q 19Instant noodles were invented in 1958 by Momofuku Ando, founder of which company?
Nissin
His first product was Chikin Ramen; the foam Cup Noodle followed in 1971.
Q 20Roughly how many servings of instant noodles were eaten worldwide in 2018?
103 billion
China and Hong Kong alone accounted for about 40 billion; Indonesia was second.
Q 24Which 1908 song gave Cracker Jack free publicity with the line 'Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack'?
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Cracker Jack is caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts, famous for the trivial prize inside every box.
Q 25How much did Charles Elmer Doolin pay in 1932 for the recipe and equipment that became Fritos?
$100
He answered a San Antonio newspaper ad placed by Gustavo Olguin, who wanted to return to Mexico.
Q 26Nachos were invented in 1943 by Ignacio Anaya at a restaurant in which Mexican border city?
Piedras Negras
He improvised them at the Victory Club for a group of US Army wives from Eagle Pass, Texas, when the cook was missing.
Q 27Carl and Neil Fletcher introduced their 'Corny Dogs' between 1938 and 1942 at which event?
The State Fair of Texas
Pronto Pup of Rockaway Beach, Oregon, claims it invented the corn dog first, in 1939.
Q 28The deep-fried Mars bar was reportedly invented in 1992 at a chip shop in which country?
Scotland
John Davie of the Haven Chip Bar in Stonehaven claimed it; The Lancet later commissioned a study after Jay Leno joked about it.
Q 29Pop-Tarts were rushed to market in 1964 by Kellogg's to beat a rival product from which company?
Post
Post announced its 'Country Squares' too early; Kellogg's built its version in four months, and frosting that survived the toaster arrived in 1967.
Q 30A 1994 experiment showed a strawberry Pop-Tart left in a toaster could produce flames roughly how high?
1.5 feet
Kellogg's had been sued in 1992 over a toaster fire, and Dave Barry's column about it made the risk famous.