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Ceres Organic Chickpea Crisps | Chewsday Review

Ahh.. another day, another healthy ‘chip’ option. Organic! Made from chickpeas! With Himalayan salt! These must be better than normal chips, right? Spoiler: They probably contain less chickpeas than you think. Find out more in today’s Chewsday Review.

Ingredients

Jasmine Brown Rice*, Chickpea* 24.6%, Sunflower Oil*, Himalayan Salt 0.9%, Natural Sea Salt (*Certified Organic).
Very interesting that for a chickpea crisp, the first ingredient is actually brown rice. These crisps contain less than 25% chickpeas.
The minimal ingredients list is nice to see – nothing tricky to pronounce or that you wouldn’t find in a pantry.
Processed on equipment that also handles: soy, sesame and dairy/milk products.

Positives

Saturated fat content is within healthy guidelines, with 1.3 g per 100 g. That’s about half the saturated fat content of regular Smith’s chips (which do come in within the healthy guidelines too!)
Sugar content is within healthy guidelines, which I would expect for a savoury product like this.
The minimal ingredients list is nice to see – nothing tricky to pronounce or that you wouldn’t find in a pantry.
Extremely aesthetic packaging. A stretch, I know – but I can’t deny this is one pretty chip packet.

Negatives

The total fat content of these just exceeds the healthy guidelines. That being said, regular potato chips contain around 3x more fat per 100 g.
As I expected, these crisps have 1.5x more sodium per 100 g than healthy guidelines. One 25 g serve contains 166 mg of sodium, which is 75% of a baby’s maximum daily sodium intake or 20% of a toddler’s daily recommended intake. This is similar to most potato chips, but more than double the amount in Tyrrell’s Lightly Salted chips.
These don’t come cheap! They are about twice the price of regular potato chips at $45 per kilo. The bag is both smaller and more expensive than regular chips. Sneaky!
Ideally, I would like snacks to contain some fibre to help keep kiddos full and regular. Thanks to the chickpeas and brown rice, these crisps do contain some fibre (1.4 g per serve) but not quite enough to reach healthy guidelines of 3 g per serve.

Marketing

Alternatives

Nutritionally, these are an only slightly better option than regular potato chips. If your family eats potato chips often, these are an okay swap. No guarantees about the taste of these though as I haven’t tried them myself. For a lower salt option Tyrrell’s Lightly Salted chips are an option.
If potato chips are something you eat only occasionally, there is no need to start eating these more regularly just because they are a slightly better option.
If you want an everyday savoury snack for kiddos, I recommend low salt rice crackers or rice/corn cakes. For older kids (4yrs +) popcorn is another option.