Walkers Monster Munch Variety Snacks, 12 x 20g

The Monster Munch Variety pack is twelve 20g bags of the Walkers baked corn claws in three flavours: four each of Roast Beef, Pickled Onion and Sweet and Spicy Flamin' Hot, 240g in all. Each bag is one serving, and the published listing gives a separate ingredients list and nutrition table for every flavour. The pack names Walkers Snack Foods Ltd as the maker.

Roast Beef

The roast beef seasoning lists wheat flour (fortified with calcium, iron, niacin and thiamin), hydrolysed soya protein, whey permeate (from milk), flavourings, rusk (from wheat), sugar, monosodium glutamate, disodium 5'-ribonucleotides, onion powder, salt, garlic powder, ammonia caramel for colour and spices. There is no beef on the list.

Pickled Onion

The pickled onion seasoning lists flavourings, whey permeate (from milk), onion powder, sugar, monosodium glutamate, disodium 5'-ribonucleotide, salt, potassium chloride, garlic powder, hydrolysed soya protein, citric acid and spices. There is no vinegar on the list; the tang comes from the flavourings and citric acid.

Sweet and Spicy Flamin' Hot

The Flamin' Hot flavour lists fructose, flavouring (containing milk and soya), monosodium glutamate, disodium 5'-ribonucleotide, hydrolysed vegetable protein (containing soya), acidity regulators (sodium acetates, citric acid and malic acid), sugar, potassium chloride, dried onion, wheat rusk, salt, colours (paprika extract and curcumin) and cayenne pepper. Fructose leads, so it starts sweet, and cayenne brings the heat.

Whey permeate and hydrolysed protein

Whey permeate, a milk ingredient left when the protein is taken out of whey, softens the Roast Beef and Pickled Onion seasonings, and hydrolysed soya or vegetable protein gives all three a meaty, brothy depth.

Rusk

Roast Beef and Flamin' Hot both use rusk, dried and crumbed wheat bread, the ingredient used in British sausages; it carries the seasoning and is one reason those bags contain wheat.

The Flamin' Hot tang

Sodium acetates with citric and malic acid give the Flamin' Hot bags a vinegary tang behind the sweetness and heat.

Potassium chloride

Pickled Onion and Flamin' Hot use potassium chloride beside salt. It tastes salty but contains no sodium, and the salt figure on a UK label is worked out from sodium.

The corn

Every bag starts the same way: maize and rapeseed oil, made into claw shaped snacks and baked, not fried, according to the pack. The difference is all in the seasoning.

Numbers for one bag

Every flavour gives 98 kcal (412 kJ), 5g of fat and 0.4g of saturates per 20g bag. Salt differs: 0.31g for Pickled Onion, 0.34g for Flamin' Hot and 0.35g for Roast Beef.

Per 100g

All three have 492 kcal and 25g of fat per 100g. Salt is 1.55g for Pickled Onion, 1.7g for Flamin' Hot and 1.73g for Roast Beef, all red on the front of pack scale, and sugars are 3g, green.

Allergens and diet

All three flavours contain milk and soya: milk in the whey permeate or the flavouring, soya in the hydrolysed soya or vegetable protein. Roast Beef contains wheat, in the wheat flour and rusk, and Flamin' Hot contains wheat, in the wheat rusk. The allergy advice on the bags lists gluten, barley, celery and mustard as possible traces. The pack says the snacks are suitable for vegetarians; it is not a vegan pack, and there is no gluten free claim. Recipes and factory arrangements change, so check the allergy advice on the pack you receive.

MSG

All three flavours use monosodium glutamate and disodium 5'-ribonucleotide, so the pack is not one for anyone who avoids MSG.

The heat

Only the Flamin' Hot bags carry chilli, as cayenne pepper, and their colour comes from paprika extract and curcumin, the yellow of turmeric. Roast Beef and Pickled Onion have no heat.

Suitable for monsters

The pack says the snacks are suitable for monsters and vegetarians, a joke with a fact inside it: none of the three flavours contains meat.

The colours

Roast Beef takes its brown from ammonia caramel, Flamin' Hot its red and yellow from paprika extract and curcumin, and Pickled Onion has no colour on its list at all.

Twelve bags

At 20g, each bag is a small portion, 98 kcal. Twelve bags cover more than two school weeks of lunchboxes, and the three flavours keep the week varied.

The pack

The purple outer bag carries the Walkers logo, the Monster Munch name over a big 12, three monsters, one for each flavour, with bands for four roast beef, four pickled onion and four sweet and spicy Flamin' Hot, and a 98 kcal per pack roundel.

Who it suits

A mixed pack suits a family with different tastes and a party bag table. Keep the Flamin' Hot bags for older children and adults who like a kick, and keep the whole pack away from anyone avoiding milk, soya or MSG.

Serving ideas

Hand the bags out in lunchboxes, or tip one of each flavour into bowls for a Halloween party.

In the kitchen

Crushed Roast Beef claws make a savoury crumb for a cottage pie; crushed Pickled Onion tops a macaroni cheese.

Storage and packaging

The pack advises a cool, dry place.

Other Monster Munch

For a single flavour, we stock Monster Munch Roast Beef and Pickled Onion in six bag packs, and Pickled Onion in a 40g grab bag.

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.