The Smith's Snackfood Company brands

Cheetos (formerly styled as Chee-tos) is a crunchy corn-cheese puff snack brand made by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. Fritos creator Charles Elmer Doolin invented Cheetos in 1948, and began national distribution in the United States. The initial success of Cheetos was a contributing factor to the merger between The Frito Company and H.W. Lay & Company in 1961 to form Frito-Lay. In 1965 Frito-Lay merged with The Pepsi-Cola Company, forming PepsiCo, the current owner of the Cheetos brand.