Low Fat Crisps

Tayto Treble Crunch  80 cent for 20g

These are a real find and manage to be both healthy-ish and delish in equal measure. They have the lovely Tayto-ey cheese and onion flavour, are incredible crunchy and not in the slightest bit greasy. They are also just 99 calories and have a lightness that we found very appealing. The bag is on the small side however – and we could easily have eaten a second one which completely offsets the low calorie benefits. At 80 cent for a 20 gram bag they are very pricey indeed.

Verdict:Surprisingly tasty ****

King Lite  79 cent for 35g

This brand has managed to pull off rather a neat trick. There is 40 per cent less fat in these crisps than you would have found in a regular bag (dating from 2005, the packaging tells us) but they taste almost identical to regular King crisps. All things being equal then, we could see little reason to buy the full-fat version if the low (er) fat option was also available. They do taste incredibly salty and we could almost hear our blood pressure rise as we ate our way through the packet.

Verdict:A regal choice ****

Marks Spencer Sour Cream and Chive 95 cent for 25g

These are remarkable. They look like crisps and they crunch like crisps, yet they taste of absolutely nothing at all. This bag of crisps may, in fact, encapsulate why healthy-option crisps are just not a good idea. To be fair to MS, these are chive and sour cream as opposed to cheese and onion – we couldn’t find that flavour – but surely the milder ingredients are still no excuse for such a tasteless product. There are only 90 calories in a bag which might appeal to someone watching their weight and it does have a lot less salt than the competition. They’re dear too.

Verdict:Wholesome, tasteless *

The Real McCoy Cheddar Onion 95 cent for 50g

We don’t like it when products claim to be gender specific so we were quite displeased to read that McCoy’s think these are “man crisps”. They’re not. They aren’t, strictly speaking, promoted as a healthy crisp either although the company does claim that this is their “lowest ever sat fat” crisp and has 30 per cent less saturated fat than it did in 2010. While the company is certainly to be commended for this reduction, these were still the greasiest of the crisps we tried and a single bag had 15 per cent of our GDA of salt.

Verdict:Greasy **

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