TikTok Had No Idea That Funyuns Lack A Seemingly Obvious Ingredient

Have you ever been in the mood for "a deliciously different snack that's fun to eat, with a crisp texture and zesty onion flavor?"  This is exactly how Frito-Lay describes its famous snack, which is a cross between an onion ring and chip. Yes, yes, we're talking about the Funyuns.

Invented in 1969 by Frito-Lay employee George Bigner (via The Daily Meal), Funyuns hold a rather polarizing spot in the world of popcorn, pretzels, and potato chips. Some people love them, and some despise them, but the Phoenix New Times ran an article jumping to the defense of these oniony snacks, listing off that they're crunchy, salty, and "playful" (whatever that means). The outlet also noted that it's the favorite snack of "Breaking Bad" star, Jesse Pinkman. On the opposite end, Paul Bacchi of the Concordiensis, Union College's newspaper, ran a scathing article detailing his deep disgust of Funyuns, even going so far as to claim the mere existence of the snack was proof God neither loves nor cares for us. Harsh.

Whatever your stance on this oniony snack, there's probably something that you, along with a certain group of people on TikTok, may not know — and it will surprise you.

If you think Funyuns were made with onions — you'd be wrong. Funyuns aren't so much "onion rings" as they are "onion-flavored rings." It's the same idea as "chocolate-flavored coating" or "cheese-flavored puffs." What Funyuns are made up of, in reality, is actually a cornmeal mix molded and baked into an onion ring shape, before being covered in an onion and salt powder (via How It's All Made). 

A TikTok from the Food Network went into detail about the Funyuns creation process, leaving some commentators shocked about the lack of onions in these onion ring snacks. "It's not even onion?? It's just corn meal and water??? Noooooooooooooooooooo," was the response of one commentator. One seemingly annoyed TikToker wrote, "So $2.89 for a small bag of corn meal and seasoning," while yet another stated, "Hold up. I thought these were made with some sort of onion. Lord."

It seems, however, that many of the commentators already know that Funyuns aren't made with real onions. They, instead, wrote about their fond childhood memories of eating Funyuns. Some did, however, make snide comments that Lay's was charging too much for Funyuns and air.