Skips Prawn Cocktail Snacks, 35g

Skips are the light, melting prawn cocktail snack from KP Snacks, made from tapioca starch rather than potato or corn. This is the 35g grab bag, which the listing says is one serving. The full product name on the pack is prawn cocktail flavour tapioca snack, the pack gives a freepost address for KP Snacks, and the listing says Skips are made under licence from Meiji Co., Ltd. of Japan.

The ingredients

According to the published pack listing, the snacks are made from tapioca starch, sunflower oil, maize flour, a prawn cocktail flavour (sugar, salt, natural flavouring, citric acid, rice flour, dried onion, potassium chloride, dried spirit vinegar extract, potato starch, dried tomato, dried yeast extract, black pepper extract, paprika extract and clove extract), rice protein, sugar and salt.

Tapioca

Tapioca starch comes from the cassava root. It puffs into a very light, airy snack that melts on the tongue, which is the whole point of a Skip: the pack calls them light and melty.

Prawn cocktail without prawn

There is no prawn or other shellfish on the list. The prawn cocktail taste is the sauce, not the seafood: sugar and tomato for the ketchup side, citric acid and spirit vinegar extract for the tang, onion and a hint of black pepper and clove for depth, and natural flavouring behind it all.

Tomato and clove

Dried tomato gives the ketchup note of a Marie Rose sauce, the pink sauce of a prawn cocktail, and clove extract adds a faint warm spice behind it.

Sweet first

Sugar leads the flavour and appears again in the base, so Skips are sweeter than most crisps: the label gives 6.5g of sugars per 100g, amber on the front of pack scale.

Meiji

The listing says Skips are made under licence from Meiji Co., Ltd., a Japanese food company, and the light, airy tapioca snack has more in common with Japanese puffed snacks than with a British potato crisp.

No MSG

The pack says no MSG, and none is on the list. Dried yeast extract is naturally rich in glutamates, worth knowing for anyone who avoids them altogether.

Potassium chloride and the salt figure

Potassium chloride sits in the flavour beside salt. It tastes salty but contains no sodium, and the salt figure on a UK label is worked out from sodium. The label gives 2.2g of salt per 100g and 0.77g for the bag.

Numbers for the bag

The pack gives 189 kcal (787 kJ), 11g of fat, 1g of saturates, 20g of carbohydrate, 2.3g of sugars, 0.5g of fibre, 1.8g of protein and 0.77g of salt for the 35g bag. That is about 9% of an average adult's daily energy reference intake, 16% of the fat and 13% of the salt. Per 100g it is 539 kcal (2249 kJ), 32g of fat, 2.9g of saturates, 56g of carbohydrate, 6.5g of sugars, 1.2g of fibre, 5.2g of protein and 2.2g of salt.

Reading the front of the pack

On the UK front of pack scale, per 100g, fat at 32g is red. Saturates at 2.9g are amber. Sugars at 6.5g are amber. Salt at 2.2g is red.

Tapioca, maize and rice

Tapioca, maize and rice are not among the 14 allergens on the UK list, so no allergen is highlighted in the ingredients.

Allergens and diet

No allergens from the UK list of 14 are highlighted in the published ingredients. The allergy advice says the snacks may contain cereals containing gluten, milk and soya. The pack says they are suitable for vegetarians; there is no vegan statement and no gluten free claim. Recipes and factory arrangements change, so check the allergy advice on the pack you receive.

What the pack leaves out

The pack says there are no artificial colours or flavours. The colour is paprika extract.

Rice protein and maize

Rice protein and maize flour join the tapioca in the base, with sunflower oil, the only oil on the list.

A grab bag

At 35g, the grab bag is about the same as two and a half bags from the six pack, 189 kcal against 71 kcal for a 13.1g bag.

The pack

The yellow bag carries the red and white Skips name in a white cloud, a grab bag flash, a few Skips around it, and the words prawn cocktail above the 35g weight.

Who it suits

A light, melting snack suits children and anyone who likes a soft bite more than a hard crunch. Shellfish is not on the list; as always, read the allergy advice on the pack.

Serving ideas

A grab bag goes with a sandwich lunch or a journey.

In the kitchen

Crushed, Skips make a fine, sweet and tangy crumb for the top of a fish pie.

Storage and packaging

The pack advises a cool, dry place. 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 Skips

The same recipe comes in a six pack of 13.1g bags and a 90g sharing bag, and there is Skips Salt and Vinegar in a six pack.

Sizes of Skips Prawn Cocktail Snacks we stock

Figures as published on each pack's label.

The published listing gives the United Kingdom as the country of origin. The tasting notes on this page are our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.