Iran War Snack Packaging Black and White: Why Your Chips Bag Lost Its Color in 2026

# Iran War Snack Packaging Black and White: Why Your Chips Bag Lost Its Color in 2026

> **Quick answer:** The Iran war and Hormuz blockade have choked global supply of naphtha — the petroleum byproduct that goes into colored printing ink. Japan's largest snack company, Calbee, is switching 14 products to black-and-white packaging starting May 25 because the ink to print those bright orange and red bags has become too scarce and expensive to source. Naphtha prices have roughly doubled since fighting began in late February 2026, and the disruption is already threatening plastics, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and fertilizers.

The Iran war's impact on your grocery store is now visible with the naked eye. That bright orange bag of potato chips? It may soon be a gray rectangle. Consumer goods companies are stripping the color from their packaging — not as a design choice, not as a rebrand — but because the raw material that makes colored printing ink possible is running short, and the Strait of Hormuz is why.

## What Is Happening: Calbee Goes Grayscale

Japan's Calbee — the country's largest snack maker with roughly 50% market share — announced it will convert 14 product lines to black-and-white packaging starting May 25, 2026. The affected products include its iconic lightly salted "usu shio" chips, Kappa Ebisen shrimp crackers, and Frugla fruit-and-granola mix.

Before the change, those packages were instantly recognizable: the usu shio bag was bright orange, decorated with yellow chip illustrations and a cheerful potato-man mascot wearing a hat. The new version is monochrome lettering on a white background. Same chips. No color.