What we found

We found one product that didn’t meet the Food Standards Code labelling requirements: Pyott’s Provita Wholewheat Crispbread. The label didn’t include saturated fat and sodium content. 

The good and the bad

Only two crackers in our selection met our criteria for total fat and sodium content: Kavli Crispy Thin and Trident Plain Rice Crackers.

They’re both low in total fat, saturated fat and sodium. Kavli also contributes to your fibre intake, it had the highest fibre content of all the products which state it. Arnott’s Vita-Weat (although higher in fat and sodium) is also a source of fibre.

Several crackers met our fat criterion (less than 5g per 100g) or came close (5-10g per 100g) but had a higher sodium content. These crackers were mostly plain rice crackers, wafers and water crackers that go well with cheese.

About a quarter of the crackers we surveyed contained 20 percent or more total fat. The worst offenders were Griffin’s Huntley & Palmers Cheddars with close to 30 percent fat, of which more than one-third was “bad” saturated fat. Not far behind were Griffin’s Meal Mates and Snax Original Crackers.

If you’re pairing your crackers with cheese, go for lower fat crackers – cheese is a high-fat food. The creamy blues in our recent tasting were up to 44 percent fat!

Half-baked claims

Ignore claims such as “oven-baked goodness” and “baked not fried”. All crackers are baked but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re low fat. One product that makes these claims – Arnott’s Jatz – was among the highest fat crackers in our selection: they’re nearly 25 percent fat. 

Crackers and cheese

We asked our Cheese tasting panel to suggest their favourite crackers for eating with cheese. Their picks were plain water crackers, oatcakes, and lavash (a flat crispbread). Most importantly, stay away from anything too salty or flavoured – you won’t be able to taste the cheese.