Walkers Oven Baked Prawn Cocktail Crisps, 6 x 22g

This is Walkers Oven Baked Prawn Cocktail as a six bag multipack: 22g bags, 132g in all, each a single serving. The full product name on the pack is 6 x Prawn Cocktail Flavour Baked Potato Snack with Sugar and Sweetener, and the pack names Walkers Snack Foods Ltd as the maker.

The ingredients

According to the ingredients panel on the pack, the snack is made from potato flakes, starch, rapeseed oil, a prawn cocktail seasoning (flavourings, sugar, citric acid, potassium acetates, dextrose, potassium chloride, salt, yeast powder, onion powder, tomato powder, spice extract, paprika extract for colour, and sucralose as a sweetener), sugar, an emulsifier (lecithins), sunflower oil and a colour (annatto norbixin).

How it is made

Walkers Oven Baked is made from potato flakes and starch rather than sliced potato. The mixture is shaped and baked, and the pack pictures thin, ridged ovals beside the words always baked, never fried. That is why the legal name is baked potato snack rather than crisps.

Potato flakes and starch

Potato flakes are cooked, mashed and dried potato, and starch helps the shaped snack hold together in the oven. That is what gives it a light, even texture rather than the harder crunch of a fried slice.

No seafood

Like every prawn cocktail crisp, the flavour copies the sauce of the starter, a mix of mayonnaise and tomato ketchup, rather than the prawns. No seafood of any kind is listed.

Why the label says sweetener

Prawn cocktail sauce is sweet, and the seasoning gets its sweetness from sugar, dextrose and a small amount of sucralose. Because a sweetener is used, the law requires the name of the food to say with sugar and sweetener. The pack gives 1.3g of sugars in a 22g bag.

The tang and the salt

Citric acid and potassium acetates give the tang; potassium chloride tastes salty but contains no sodium, so it does not count towards the salt figure on the label. The pack gives 0.48g of salt per 100g and 0.11g for each bag, which it puts at 2% of an average adult's daily reference intake.

Numbers for one bag

The pack's nutrition panel gives, for each 22g bag, 94 kcal (395 kJ), 2.8g of fat, 0.3g of saturates, 15g of carbohydrate, 1.3g of sugars, 1.3g of fibre, 1.1g of protein and 0.11g of salt, which it puts at 5% of the energy reference intake and 4% of the fat. Per 100g it is 427 kcal (1797 kJ), 13g of fat, 1.2g of saturates, 70g of carbohydrate, 6.1g of sugars, 5.9g of fibre, 5.1g of protein and 0.48g 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 1.2g are green. Sugars at 6.1g are amber, with sugar in both the seasoning and the recipe. Salt at 0.48g is amber, near the bottom of its band.

Allergy advice

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

The paper outer bag

The brand says the outer bag of this multipack is now paper based and can be recycled at home, part of cutting virgin plastic in the range, while the six inner bags are still plastic, to keep the snack fresh, and can be taken to store recycling points.

Compared with the single bag

The 22g bags carry the same recipe as the 37.5g single bag of Walkers Oven Baked Prawn Cocktail. A 22g bag gives 94 kcal and 0.11g of salt, against 160 kcal and 0.18g of salt for the 37.5g bag.

Six small bags

The 22g bags are smaller than the 37.5g single bag, which suits younger children and anyone who wants a lighter portion. Six bags cover a school or working week with one to spare, and a sweet, tangy flavour with no heat is an easy lunchbox choice.

Colours and what is left out

The colour comes from paprika extract and annatto, a natural colour from the seeds of the achiote tree. The pack says there is no added MSG and no artificial colours or preservatives.

Lunchbox ideas

Pair a bag with a ham, egg or salmon sandwich, a pot of pasta salad or some fruit. The sweet and tangy flavour sits well against something plain.

In the kitchen

Crushed, the baked ovals make a sweet and tangy topping for a prawn salad or a jacket potato with tuna mayonnaise. Add them just before serving.

Storage

The pack advises a cool, dry place. Keep the bags in the outer bag until needed and finish each one once opened.

Other sizes and flavours

For a larger single bag, we stock Walkers Oven Baked Prawn Cocktail at 37.5g. In the same six bag format there are Walkers Oven Baked Cheese and Onion, Salt and Vinegar and Sea Salt, and the Walkers Oven Baked Variety box.

Sizes of Walkers Oven Baked Prawn Cocktail 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.