Registry

Does Ruffles support Israel?

Support documentedupdated 2026-07-30

Yes — Ruffles has documented support for Israel on record. Every claim below links to its source.

Filed under: Food & beverage brands · Companies that support Israel

Background

Ruffles is a Frito-Lay brand of PepsiCo, and no donation, statement or campaign concerning Israel has been documented for the Ruffles brand itself. Its Israel link is industrial and historical: Israel's Elite took the Frito-Lay licence in 1991, imported Ruffles from Turkey, began local production at Sderot in 1992, and from 1999 ran the business as Strauss Frito Lay Ltd., a 50/50 joint venture with PepsiCo's Frito-Lay — the joint venture's actions belong to it, not to the brand. Parent-level items sit on the PepsiCo page: the PepsiCo Foundation's $1 million October 2023 pledge to humanitarian organizations serving Israel and Gaza with 2-to-1 employee matching, and the $3.2 billion acquisition of Israel's SodaStream in 2018. Viral posts calling Frito-Lay chip brands Israeli products are false — fact-checkers have noted that Lay's and its stablemates were founded in the United States and simply trade under different names in different countries. The BDS movement's official target list names PepsiCo-owned SodaStream, not Ruffles.

Hebrew Wikipedia — Ruffles (Israeli licence history) JLens — PepsiCo Foundation pledge after 7 October 2023 Haaretz — PepsiCo buys Israel's SodaStream BDS movement — what to boycott

Timeline of documented support

19911993199519971999200120031991 — Partnership: Elite Industries, later Strauss Frito Lay Ltd. (50/50 PepsiCo–Strauss joint venture)Partnership19912002 — Operations in Israel: Israeli market (Strauss Frito Lay Ltd., the PepsiCo–Strauss joint venture)Operations in Israel2002

Documented support

TypeDateAmountRecipientSources
Partnership1991—Elite Industries, later Strauss Frito Lay Ltd. (50/50 PepsiCo–Strauss joint venture)
Ruffles came to Israel through a licence, not through a PepsiCo subsidiary. In 1991 the Israeli food company Elite (now part of the Strauss Group) received the franchise to market Frito-Lay's salty snacks in Israel, and Ruffles was among them — initially imported from Turkey, then produced locally from 1992 at Elite's Sderot plant. In 1999 PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division paid about $10 million for 50% of that business, creating Strauss Frito Lay Ltd., the joint venture that PepsiCo listed as "Strauss Frito Lay Ltd. — Israel" in the subsidiaries exhibit of its 10-K. The Israeli producer is therefore the joint venture and its Israeli parent, not a Ruffles company: there is no Ruffles subsidiary in Israel, and this is commercial licensing and manufacturing, not a donation or political act.
Operations in Israel2002—Israeli market (Strauss Frito Lay Ltd., the PepsiCo–Strauss joint venture)
The Ruffles brand was marketed in Israel alongside the local Tapuchips brand from 1992 until around 2002, when the joint venture decided it was better to concentrate resources on one strong existing local brand and replaced Ruffles with Tapuchips Extra; imported Ruffles packs have since returned to Israeli shelves alongside the Israeli-made range. This is a commercial branding decision taken by Strauss Frito Lay in Israel, an ended local marketing relationship reported here with its end date; nothing in it is a donation, sponsorship or statement, and none of it is attributable to the Ruffles brand as such.

Frequently asked questions

Did Ruffles donate money to Israel or Israeli causes?

We have no records of cash donations, but Ruffles has documented support of other kinds (Partnership, Operations in Israel). See the records on this page.

Where does this information come from?

Every record on this page links to its source — news reports, official company statements, tax filings, or government records. 6 distinct sources are cited for Ruffles. Our methodology page explains the full verification process.

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2026-07-30

Companies with documented support