You know when you go to parties and you either take your own food, eat before you go or speak to the host to check which foods might be suitable for you? Well the one thing I have always known were OK and that are easy to spot at a party were the vegetable crisps. These are always safe right?
Despite knowing they are always safe I still check the ingredients because you never know.
There a few brands including Tyrells and Kettle Chips and some own brand varieties. I have checked the labels religiously over the years and they have remained freefrom allergens. They are always ‘just’ vegetable crisps. Right?
WRONG!
There were two bags of vegetable crisps on the table. It turned out there was normal variety which was OK and one which was most definitely not OK.
Watch out for Tyrells Beetroot, parsnip & carrot crisps with rosemary and garlic.
I’m sure they tasted lovely but they ‘looked’ exactly like the normal variety but had we not checked the label religiously, as we always do, things could have gone horribly wrong. I can hear myself chatting away to Mum as we did this. “I can’t even read the ingredients on this packet, it’s so small, but I’m sure I can eat these… wait.a.minute… CHEESE POWDER!”
Ingredients (for those who are still struggling to read the label on the crisps…)
Mixed Root Vegetables In Variable Proportions (Parsnip, Carrot, Beetroot), Sunflower Oil, Rice Flour, Yeast Extract Powder, Herbs (Including Rosemary), Salt, Garlic Powder, Yeast Powder, Cheese Powder, Onion Powder, Sugar, Natural Flavourings, Cotswold Wild Garlic Leaf. Contains Milk.
Nb: One thing to note also is that crisps can be very dangerous. Consider what has been in the bowl before? Have the crisps been put into a bowl that previously contained salted peanuts? Generally the rule is, don’t eat crisps unless you’ve seen the packet and are 100% certain they are OK for you. They also all look confusingly alike once they are out of their bag so be very careful where crisps are concerned.
Why do flavoured crisps have to contain dairy?
Why oh why do so many crisps contain milk or cheese powder? I am quite happy with ready salted crisps and actually do enjoy them but there are hardly any flavoured crisps that don’t contain some dairy, whey powder of milk powder of some sort.
My plea to Tyrells is to try to make these without the cheese powder though I don’t expect them to. But also to list the herbs too. Some people can’t eat certain herbs and it’s just so helpful to know which ones have been used.
Labelling is a minefield and on this particular packet the ingredients were listed in ten languagues which is great, but means the type face is so small, probably about point 4 size in word. I can read them but anyone with poor eyesight would need glasses and/or a magnifying glass.
And so the moral of the story is, always check the ingredients, even on those products that you know and love. Recipes can change, new flavours can be launched, as in this case with the different flavour vegetable crisps, and ingredients like cheese powder can appear in a product you least expected to contain it.
Many thanks alerting me to this Ruth, I normally check everything but may have thought these were ok
Gosh I know, me too. I didn’t expect to see cheese powder and was only really checking to appease my Mum who was making me check. Glad I did though! These are crinkle cut so at least they do look slightly different to the normal ones but such a shame.
With crisps it has always been an issue for me with salt from a young child, if i had crisps with salt i used to bring out in a red rash especially my birthmark at the back of my neck used to glow redder and itch and same issue with milk powder.
More crisps which used to not have milk on the market like skips and others have changed too, at one time Nik Naks were ok but again now added soya, and milk.
Now with a dehydrator at home I make golden beetroot, carrot or kale crisps which I add black salt or red salt onto if needed.
Have a great 2014 Ruth and keep on writing.
Hi Richard, I always buy the ‘salt n shake’ crisps when I see them just because I prefer them without salt, but I do like love ready salted crisps too sometimes. I really do miss frazzles and skips. I know they’re not that great for you but sometimes you just want that lovely flavour of our youth. I love the idea of making your own crisps. I’ve heard about these dehydrators but never quite sure whether I would use one. Have a great 2014 yourself and I can’t stop writing… that would be impossible.
First of all thanks for the information!
One thing i have also found out with the help some friends of mine is that the ingredient (natural flavour enhancer) can be anything they want! because their definition of natural is applicable to anything since everything comes from nature in the first place! besides 1 good way to test your suspicion is to just taste and see how srong the chips are in comparrison to the flavour enhancer ones if they are not that different in taste, then there’s a big chance its just another unhealthy chips variety.. and never forget that allot of company’s employ dirty an vague tactics to be able to keep the prices as low as possible when hiding the real ingredients with VAGUE labels.. cancer is the number 1 desease right now and its largely due to so many influences in food and drugs to just name a few..
Plain crisps are my favourite. I’ve found some posh pork scratching which are just pork rind and salt. Yummy.
I am vegan and was so delighted when Tyrell’s chips landed in my supermarket. I always read the label and was pleasantly surprised to see at least a few different flavours that didn’t contain any milk/dairy products. After years of only being able to eat plain salted chips this was great! But after going to their website I read that although it says vegan friendly on the front of that packet it does say that milk products are used in the factory so that makes me worry about cross contamination, dammit. Just thought I’d share. You have to be so diligent with reading labels.
You do indeed have to be very careful and both those with allergies and those choosing dairy free because it’s also vegan worry about cross contamination for different reasons. For a vegan it’s more ethics I guess, do you want to buy a product with no dairy from a brand who actively use dairy in other products? For me, I’ve never had a problem with actual cross contamination with plain vegetable crisps, which I love, or plain crisps and I would KNOW if there was dairy in them. I guess it’s a trade of between limiting your choices too much. Life is complicated enough and far more enjoyable with Tyrells vegetable crisps ;o) Have you tried parsnip and apple and cinnamon crisps?