Walkers Oven Baked Cheese and Onion Crisps, 37.5g

Walkers Oven Baked is Walkers' baked range, made from potato flakes and starch rather than sliced potatoes, and this is its cheese and onion flavour in a 37.5g single bag. The full product name on the pack is Cheese and Onion Flavour Baked Potato Snack, and the pack names Walkers Snack Foods Ltd as the maker.

Baked, not sliced

A regular crisp is a slice of potato fried in oil. Here the recipe starts with potato flakes and starch, which are shaped and baked; the pack pictures thin, ridged ovals and says the range is always baked, never fried. That is also why the legal name on the pack is baked potato snack rather than crisps. The result is lighter and airier than a fried slice, with an even snap.

Potato flakes and starch

Potato flakes are cooked, mashed and dried potato, and starch helps the shaped snack hold together as it bakes. Together they give the even, airy texture of a baked snack.

The ingredients

According to the published pack listing, the snack is made from potato flakes, starch, rapeseed oil, a cheese and onion seasoning (whey permeate from milk, salt, sugar, flavouring containing milk, onion powder, citric and malic acid, whey protein from milk, garlic powder, dried cheese from milk at 0.1%, whey powder from milk, colours paprika extract and annatto bixin, and skimmed milk powder), sugar, an emulsifier (lecithins), sunflower oil and a colour (annatto norbixin).

How the flavour is built

The dairy side comes mostly from whey: whey permeate, the milky, slightly sweet powder left when protein is taken out of whey, plus whey protein and whey powder, with skimmed milk powder. Real cheese is on the list too, as dried cheese, but at 0.1% of the product it is a trace, so the flavouring and the whey do most of the work. Onion powder and garlic give the savoury side, and citric and malic acid, the acids of lemons and apples, give the tang.

The colours

The golden colour comes from paprika extract and annatto, a natural colour from the seeds of the achiote tree. Annatto appears twice: as bixin in the seasoning and as norbixin on the snack itself. The pack says there are no artificial colours.

Numbers for one bag

The label gives 164 kcal, 4.8g of fat, 0.5g of saturates, 27g of carbohydrate, 2.7g of sugars, 2.3g of fibre, 2.3g of protein and 0.33g of salt for the 37.5g bag, which it treats as one serving. That is about 8% of an average adult's daily energy reference intake, 7% of the fat and 6% of the salt. Per 100g it is 437 kcal, 13g of fat, 1.4g of saturates, 72g of carbohydrate, 7.3g of sugars, 6.2g of fibre, 6.1g of protein and 0.89g of salt.

Reading the front of the pack

On the UK front of pack scale, per 100g, fat at 13g is amber rather than the red of a fried crisp, and saturates at 1.4g are green. Sugars at 7.3g are amber; sugar appears twice on the list, in the seasoning and in the recipe itself. Salt at 0.89g is amber.

Allergens and diet

The published ingredients highlight milk, in the whey, the flavouring, the dried cheese and the skimmed milk powder. The allergy advice says the snack may contain cereals containing gluten, mustard and soya. The pack says it is suitable for vegetarians; it is not vegan, because of the milk, and there is 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 is no added MSG, no artificial colours and no artificial preservatives. Lecithins, the emulsifier on the list, help oil and water mix evenly in a recipe like this.

A single bag

A 37.5g bag is a single serving, sized for a lunchbox, a bag or a desk drawer. It pairs with a sandwich, a salad or a bowl of soup.

Who it suits

A single 37.5g bag keeps the portion fixed, and the light, airy texture suits anyone who finds a hand cooked crisp too hard. It is not suitable for anyone avoiding milk.

Serving ideas

Cheese and onion goes with a ham or tomato sandwich, a ploughman's or a bowl of tomato soup. A baked snack is light enough to sit beside a full lunch.

In the kitchen

Crushed, the baked ovals make a fine, cheesy crumb for the top of a pasta bake or a fish pie. They brown quickly, so add the crumb near the end of cooking.

Storage

The pack advises a cool, dry place. Finish the bag once it is opened.

The six bag pack

For a week of lunches, we stock the same Walkers Oven Baked Cheese and Onion in a six bag multipack of 22g bags, at 96 kcal a bag.

Other Walkers Oven Baked flavours

In the same 37.5g bag we stock Walkers Oven Baked Prawn Cocktail, Salt and Vinegar and Sea Salt. In 150g sharing bags there are Walkers Oven Baked Sun Dried Tomato and Basil and Slow Roasted Beef.

Sizes of Walkers Oven Baked Cheese and Onion Crisps 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.