Walkers Oven Baked Salt and Vinegar Crisps, 6 x 22g

Six small bags of Walkers' baked salt and vinegar: 22g each, 132g in all. The full product name on the pack is 6 x Salt and Malt Vinegar Flavour Baked Potato Snack, and the pack names Walkers Snack Foods Ltd as the maker.

What makes it a baked snack

The snack starts from potato flakes and starch rather than slices. It is shaped and baked, and the pack pictures thin, ridged ovals under the words oven baked; the legal name, baked potato snack, follows from that.

Ingredients from the pack

The ingredients panel on the pack, which matches the published listing, reads: potato flakes, starch, rapeseed oil, a salt and malt vinegar seasoning (flavourings containing barley malt vinegar extract, citric acid, salt, lactose from milk, potassium chloride and paprika extract for colour), sugar, an emulsifier (lecithins), sunflower oil and a colour (annatto norbixin).

The vinegar tang

Chip shop vinegar is malt vinegar, brewed from barley, and the seasoning uses an extract of it in the flavourings to give that malty sharpness in dry form. Citric acid, the acid of lemons, adds a brighter edge, and lactose carries the powder.

Malt vinegar

Malt vinegar starts life as a brew of malted barley, fermented to a beer like liquid and then to vinegar, which gives it a rounded sharpness. The seasoning captures that taste as a barley malt vinegar extract in the flavourings.

Lactose

Lactose, the natural sugar of milk, carries the seasoning and softens the acid. It is also why the snack is not suitable for anyone avoiding milk, even though there is no cheese or cream on the list.

Allergy advice

The pack highlights barley and milk in the ingredients. Its allergy advice says the snack may contain mustard, soya, wheat and other cereals containing gluten. 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.

Numbers for one bag

The pack's nutrition panel gives, for each 22g bag, 96 kcal (402 kJ), 2.8g of fat, 0.3g of saturates, 16g of carbohydrate, 1.3g of sugars, 1.3g of fibre, 1.3g of protein and 0.19g of salt, which it puts at 5% of an average adult's daily energy reference intake, 4% of the fat and 3% of the salt. Per 100g it is 435 kcal (1829 kJ), 13g of fat, 1.4g of saturates, 72g of carbohydrate, 5.8g of sugars, 6.1g of fibre, 5.9g of protein and 0.88g 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 5.8g are amber, just over the 5g line. Salt at 0.88g is amber.

Potassium chloride

Potassium chloride sits in the seasoning beside ordinary salt. It tastes salty but contains no sodium, and because the salt figure on a UK label is worked out from sodium, it adds saltiness without adding to that figure.

Compared with the single bag

The 22g bags carry the same recipe as the 37.5g single bag of Walkers Oven Baked Salt and Vinegar. A 22g bag gives 96 kcal and 0.19g of salt, against 163 kcal and 0.33g of salt for the 37.5g bag.

Small bags for small appetites

At 22g, each bag is a modest portion, which suits younger children or a mid morning snack. Six bags cover a working or school week with one to spare.

Who it suits

A light, baked salt and vinegar suits anyone who likes a sharp flavour in a smaller, lighter snack, and the 22g bags suit children who find a full size bag too much.

The paper outer bag

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

Colours

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

Lunchbox ideas

A sharp crisp goes well with something plain: a cheese or egg sandwich, a pot of pasta salad, or a tuna wrap. Keep a bag aside for a picnic, where a sharp flavour cuts through rich food such as pork pies and sausage rolls.

In the kitchen

Crushed, the ovals make a sharp, light crumb for fish goujons or a crunchy topping for a potato salad.

Storage

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

Other flavours

In the same six bag format we stock Walkers Oven Baked Cheese and Onion, Prawn Cocktail and Sea Salt, and the Walkers Oven Baked Variety box, which holds two bags of salt and vinegar alongside sea salt and cheese and onion.

Sizes of Walkers Oven Baked Salt and Vinegar 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.