The next Lay’s potato chip will taste like chicken and waffles. Or cheesy garlic bread. Or Sriracha, a hot sauce often used in Thai dishes. Lay’s is letting potato chip lovers decide which one of the three will be its newest flavor. All of them will be sold at retailers nationwide starting this week. After trying them, fans have until May to vote for their favorites. The flavor with the most votes will stay on store shelves.

But if the other two flavors sell well, they may remain in stores, too, said Ann Mukherjee, chief marketing officer at Frito-Lay. “Who knows, we don’t know what’s going to happen.” she said. “Our intent is to keep the one that people vote for.”

It’s the latest promotional stunt that tries to engage customers through social media and direct interaction, much as Hasbro’s Monopoly did with its recent contest that ended with the addition of a cat game token and the demise of the iron.

Lay’s Chicken & Waffles, Cheesy Garlic Bread and Sriracha were suggested by three people through the company’s “Do Us a Flavor” campaign. A panel of chefs and flavor experts looked though about 3.8 million submissions and selected about 20 flavors to prototype. From there, the judges picked the three finalists. Mukherjee said that each dish was cooked in the test kitchen and compared with the flavored chip.

Dew with your pancakes

If you don’t like coffee or tea, Mountain Dew has a new breakfast drink that might perk you up.

PepsiCo Inc. is rolling out a new drink called Kickstart this month that has Mountain Dew flavor but is made with 5 percent juice and Vitamins B and C, along with an extra jolt of caffeine.

The company, based in Purchase, N.Y., is hoping to boost sales by reaching Mountain Dew fans at a new time of day: morning.

PepsiCo said it doesn’t consider Kickstart to be an energy drink, noting that it still has far less caffeine than drinks like Monster and Red Bull and none of the mysterious ingredients that have raised concerns among lawmakers and consumer advocates. But Kickstart, which comes in flavors such as “energizing orange citrus” and “energizing fruit punch,” could nevertheless give the company a side-door into the fast-growing energy drink market without getting tangled in any of its controversies.

Fraud payback

The government says it recovered almost $8 for each dollar it spent investigating health care fraud over the past three years, including a record $4.2 billion last year. The $7.90 average return on investment is the highest in the 16-year history of the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Program.

Hotel perk in N.J.

A New Jersey casino says it will become the first casino in the United States to let hotel guests gamble from their rooms over the TV set.

Atlantic City’s Borgata will offer its E-Casino to hotel guests starting Feb. 18.

It lets guests with player’s cards set up electronic accounts and risk up to $2,500 a day. Slots and four kinds of video poker will be the first games offered.

Stellar housing data

Prices for single-family homes climbed in almost 88 percent of U.S. cities in the fourth quarter as the housing recovery broadened.The median sales price rose from a year earlier in 133 of 152 metropolitan areas measured, the National Association of Realtors said in a report Monday. In the third quarter, 120 areas had gains.

Fireplace ruling

A federal appeals court has thrown out an Energy Department rule that could have forced decorative fireplaces fueled by natural gas to meet energy efficiency standards. A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the rule made no sense, since the appliances – also known as “gas logs” – are specifically designed to minimize the amount of heat generated.

Freebies for gamers

Electronic Arts Inc. will offer free downloads of its newest “Real Racing” title as the second- largest U.S. video-game publisher works to draw the increasing number of gamers using mobile devices.

If you don’t like coffee or tea, Mountain Dew has a new breakfast drink that might perk you up.

PepsiCo Inc. is rolling out a new drink called Kickstart this month that has Mountain Dew flavor but is made with 5 percent juice and Vitamins B and C, along with an extra jolt of caffeine.

The company, based in Purchase, N.Y., is hoping to boost sales by reaching Mountain Dew fans at a new time of day: morning.

PepsiCo said it doesn’t consider Kickstart to be an energy drink, noting that it still has far less caffeine than drinks like Monster and Red Bull and none of the mysterious ingredients that have raised concerns among lawmakers and consumer advocates.

But Kickstart, which comes in flavors such as “energizing orange citrus” and “energizing fruit punch,” could nevertheless give the company a side-door into the fast-growing energy drink market without getting tangled in any of its controversies. The drink comes in the same 16-ounce cans as popular energy drinks made by Monster Beverage Corp., which also offers options with juice content. And the TV ad features young men skateboarding, reminiscent of the marketing themes used by energy drink makers.

Simon Lowden, chief marketing officer for PepsiCo’s Americas beverages, says the idea for Kickstart came about after the company learned through consumer research that Mountain Dew fans were looking for an alternative to traditional morning drinks such as coffee, tea and juice.

“They didn’t really see anything that fit their needs,” he said.

Lowden said Kickstart was developed independently from a Taco Bell breakfast drink introduced last year that combines Mountain Dew and orange juice. PepsiCo says Kickstart, which is carbonated, is also not a soda because its 5 percent juice content qualifies it to be considered a “juice drink” under guidelines set by the Food and Drug Administration. A spokeswoman for the FDA said the agency doesn’t have definitions for what qualifies as a soda or an energy drink.

With the growth of energy drinks such as Monster and Red Bull expected to slow, Kickstart could also signal the emergence of a new category that plays off the promise of energy and other health benefits, said John Sicher, publisher of the trade journal Beverage Digest.

In a nod to the growing concerns about sugary drinks, for example, Kickstart also uses artificial sweeteners to reduce its caloric content to about half that of regular soda; a can has 80 calories.

The Star’s news services