Richard Montañez's claim of inventing Flamin' Hot Cheetos has been disputed. According to a 2021 Los Angeles Times report, Flamin' Hot Cheetos were invented by a team of food professionals led by Lynne Greenfeld at Frito-Lay's headquarters in Plano, Texas, to compete with spicy snacks sold in inner-city mini-marts in the Midwest. Frito-Lay would neither confirm nor deny Montañez's account and told the Times, "None of our records show that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin' Hot test market", but "Different work streams tackling the same product without interacting occasionally occurred in the past when divisions operated independently." Roger Enrico also did not become the CEO of Frito-Lay until 1991, after the product and brand had been developed. Enrico died in 2016 before the Times' report; his secretary said that Montañez's phone call with Enrico took place in 1993 to pitch Flamin' Hot Popcorn, two years after Flamin' Hot Cheetos were introduced. Frito-Lay did confirm that Montañez pitched several successful snacks developed for Latino customers while working as a machine operator, and that the film's account of Montañez ascending from working as a janitor to an executive is accurate.
