A rubbery adhesive between the two layers that make up Frito-Lay's compostable packaging concept may act as a sound barrier and solve the noise issue that led the company to reduce its first effort to offer some of its snack products in biodegradable packaging.

PepsiCo, Inc., Purchase, N.Y., introduced the new packaging concept in April 2009 to much fanfare. The packaging is made with polylactic acid, a plant-based material, and the initial launch was under the company's SunChips brand.

Frito-Lay ran into a headwind as U.S. consumers complained about the noise made by the new packaging, and it reduced the number of SunChips items that featured the packaging this past October.

The redesigned, biodegradable packaging is arriving in U.S. stores during the next few months.