Cheez-It Cheese and Smokey Bacon Thin and Crispy Baked Snacks, 150g

Cheez-It are baked cheese crackers, and Snap'd is the thin, crispy range. Cheese and Smokey Bacon adds a smoky, bacon style seasoning to the cheesy cracker, with no bacon on the list. This is the 150g sharing bag, which the listing says holds five servings. The full product name on the pack is thin and crispy baked snacks with cheese and cheese and smokey bacon flavour seasoning, and the listing names Kellogg Marketing and Sales Company (UK) Limited, of Salford, as the UK distributor.

The ingredients

According to the published pack listing, the crackers are made from wheat flour, sunflower oil (with a tocopherol rich extract as antioxidant), starch, dehydrated potatoes, a cheese and smokey bacon flavour seasoning, cheese (milk, 4.2%), oat fibre, sugar, salt, raising agents (ammonium carbonates), acids (citric and lactic), emulsifiers (lecithins) and colours (curcumin, annatto norbixin and paprika extract).

The seasoning

The seasoning lists whey powder (milk), salt, cheese powder (milk, 0.5%), yeast powder, modified starch, flavourings, maltodextrin, yeast extract, onion powder, smoked dextrose, hydrolysed vegetable protein, sugar, garlic powder, citric and lactic acid, sunflower oil and paprika extract.

Bacon without bacon

There is no bacon or other meat on the list. The smoky, bacon style note comes from smoked dextrose, a sugar smoked over wood, and the flavourings, with yeast, yeast extract and hydrolysed vegetable protein giving the savoury, meaty depth. The listing says the crackers are vegetarian certified.

Real cheese in the dough

Cheese makes up 4.2% of the cracker, baked into the dough itself, with whey powder and cheese powder in the seasoning. The cheese comes first, and the smoke follows.

Baked, thin and crispy

The pack describes the crackers as thin and crispy and baked. Wheat flour, starch and dehydrated potato make a light dough, and ammonium carbonates, a traditional baking raising agent, help it puff and crisp in the oven.

The tocopherols

The sunflower oil carries a tocopherol rich extract, a natural antioxidant related to vitamin E, which helps keep the oil fresh.

Oat fibre

Oat fibre adds fibre and a little body to the dough. Oats are one of the cereals containing gluten under UK allergen rules, so it is highlighted with the wheat.

Lecithins

Lecithins are emulsifiers that help the dough mix evenly. The list does not name their source, and the allergy advice says the crackers may contain soya.

No artificial colours or flavours

The listing says there are no artificial colours or flavours. The orange colour comes from curcumin, the yellow of turmeric, annatto and paprika extract.

Numbers per serving

The label gives 150 kcal (626 kJ), 7.5g of fat, 0.9g of saturates, 18g of carbohydrate, 0.6g of sugars, 1.3g of fibre, 2.2g of protein and 0.45g of salt for each 30g serving. That is about 8% of an average adult's daily energy reference intake, 11% of the fat and 8% of the salt. Per 100g it is 499 kcal (2086 kJ), 25g of fat, 2.9g of saturates, 59g of carbohydrate, 2g of sugars, 4.2g of fibre, 7.3g of protein and 1.5g of salt.

Reading the front of the pack

On the UK front of pack scale, per 100g, fat at 25g is red. Saturates at 2.9g are amber. Sugars at 2g are green. Salt at 1.5g is amber, right on the line.

Allergens and diet

The published ingredients highlight wheat, in the wheat flour, oats, in the oat fibre, and milk, in the cheese, whey powder and cheese powder. The allergy advice says the crackers may contain mustard and soya. The listing says they are vegetarian certified and halal certified; they are not vegan, and they are not suitable for anyone avoiding gluten or milk. Recipes and factory arrangements change, so check the allergy advice on the pack you receive.

Halal and vegetarian

The listing says Cheez-It are vegetarian certified and halal certified, so a bacon flavoured cracker can sit on a halal or vegetarian table.

Five servings

The listing says the 150g bag holds five servings of 30g. Tip a serving into a bowl rather than eating from the bag.

Snap'd

Snap'd is the name of the thin, crispy range, and the crackers break with a clean snap. They are thinner than a classic cheese cracker, closer to a crisp.

The pack

The red and maroon bag carries the white Cheez-It name, the orange Snap'd word, a band reading cheese and smokey bacon flavour, and a wedge of cheese, rashers of bacon and a pile of crackers beside the 150g weight.

Who it suits

A smoky, cheesy cracker suits anyone who likes a bacon flavour without the meat, and the halal and vegetarian statements suit many tables. It is not suitable for anyone avoiding gluten or milk.

Serving the bag

Serve it with a tomato soup, a cheeseboard or a cold beer, or beside a soured cream and chive dip.

In the kitchen

Crushed, the crackers make a smoky, cheesy crumb for the top of a macaroni cheese or a cauliflower cheese.

Storage and packaging

Keep the bag cool and dry and clip it shut between servings. The published recycling guidance says the whole packaging can be recycled with carrier bags at large supermarkets and should not go in home recycling.

Other Cheez-It

In the same 150g Snap'd bag we stock Cheez-It Double Cheese and Cheese and Chilli.

Other 150g packs of Cheez-It Snap'd we stock

Figures as published on each pack's label.

The tasting notes on this page are our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.