In the early 1960s, a salesman for Alex Foods noticed the Casa De Fritos folks discarding the tortillas and suggested cutting them up and frying them into chips; Alex Foods produced the chips and provided them to Casa De Fritos, and the chips became popular with patrons.

The iconic snack food Doritos was famously created at Disneyland in the early 1960s at a restaurant in Frontierland called Casa de Fritos (now Rancho del Zocalo). The restaurant, sponsored by Frito-Lay, used to discard surplus tortillas at the end of each day. A salesman from Alex Foods noticed the waste and suggested to the cook that they should cut the tortillas into triangles, deep-fry them, and season them—similar to a traditional Mexican snack called totopos. These "discarded" chips became so popular with Disneyland guests that the restaurant started selling them as a regular menu item without officially telling the Frito-Lay company. When Frito-Lay executive Arch West visited the park in 1964 and saw the massive demand for these seasoned tortilla chips, he struck a deal to produce them on a national scale. Today, Doritos are a multi-billion dollar brand, but their "origin story" remains one of the most famous examples of "upcycling" food waste into a global culinary phenomenon, all starting in the "Happiest Place on Earth."