Food
Crackers
Introduction
Our label survey found some crackers have as much fat and salt weight-for-weight as potato chips!
Not all crackers are a healthy snack. We looked at the fat, fibre and sodium content of 42 crackers, and found only one that met all our nutrition criteria.
Find out which crackers are the healthiest choices, and use our criteria to help you choose next time you go shopping.
About our survey
We bought a selection of crackers available from supermarkets. We selected the type of crackers you might serve with cheese and found very few that met our nutrition criteria. While our label survey doesn’t cover every cracker, you can use our criteria (see below) to see how other crackers stack up.
Serving size
Serving sizes differ between types of crackers and brands, which makes it difficult to compare them by serving size. So we compared crackers per 100g (even though you won't be eating this much in one go). That's about 73 wafer crackers, 60 rice crackers or 33 water crackers.
See Crackers compared to compare the nutrition value of all 42 crackers.
Our criteria
Per 100g look for:
- More than 5g dietary fibre
- Less than 5g total fat
- Less than 350mg sodium
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.
Crackers compared
Guide to the table
- Our survey was based on label information.
- Products are listed, within ratings, by energy content – lowest to highest.
- ns = not stated.
Report by Libby Manley.