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Harvest Snaps Baked Pea Crisps | Chewsday Review

Today’s Chewsday Review features a snack product that hasn’t been on the market very long- and it’s shaped like… a vegetable. Of course it is! So are Harvest Snaps Baked Pea Crisps any better than the other veggie flavoured chips out there? Let’s see…

Ingredients

Green Peas (70%), Rice Bran Oil (Antioxidant (304)), Pea Fibre, Original Salted Seasoning (4.5%) [Sugar, Salt, Maltodextrin, Yeast Extract, Vegetable Oil, Flavour Enhancer (635), Anti-Caking Agent (551), Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid)], Stabiliser (170).
A pea chip that is actually made from mostly peas?! We’re off to a good start here.
When this product was reformulated they swapped vegetable oil for rice bran oil and added pea fibre.
Allergens: none.

Positives

The snaps are made mainly from peas and also have added pea fibre, which gives them a decent fibre content of 14.3g per 100g. This works out to 2.6g per packet, which is about 20% of a toddler’s and 15% of a young child’s fibre requirements.
Sodium is within guidelines (WHAT?!) at 357mg per 100g. This is less than most regular potato chips and veggie chips (approx. 500-600mg per 100g), but surprisingly also less than Mum-Mum Pea Snacks (409mg per 100g).
I like that these are green and are shaped like a pea pod. This makes them closer to looking like a vegetable than most other veggie chips.
The bite and dissolve texture can be helpful for biting and chewing skills. This food is used by feeding therapists because the shape helps children to learn to chew using their back teeth, and it dissolves quickly after an initial bite.

Negatives

Saturated fat content is 4.7g per 100g, which is above recommendations and about double the amount in regular potato chips. Rice bran oil naturally contains more saturated fat than oils commonly used by chip companies, like canola or sunflower oil.
Total fat is also above recommendations (19.9g per 100g), but this is lower than most potato chips, which contain around 22-35 g of fat per 100g.
At $44 per kg for the “snack packs”, these are pretty expensive and double the price of most chips. They are however much cheaper than individual packets of Mum Mum Pea Snacks, which come to $83 per kg.
Individual packaging is convenient for school snacks or if you’re out and about, but it isn’t great for the environment.
These chips are made in Thailand, so are not supporting our own food industry.

Marketing

“A flavour packed, fun source of fibre with less than 100 calories per serve, less fat and less sodium than regular potato chips…” Technically this is true, but you can find chips that are still lower in salt or fat. For example Tyrell’s lightly salted potato chips contain only 233mg of salt per 100g and Smith’s Baked Snacks have only 16.1g of fat. This kind of statement can be quite misleading because they’re comparing to a specific type of potato chip that they haven’t disclosed.
“And they’re guilt-free.” Ugh… I’m ready for this language to go in the bin.
”Baked not fried“. True, but remember baking in oil doesn’t necessarily make them more nutritious than frying in oil.

Alternatives

Overall these have more fibre than I expected, and since being reformulated have less sodium, but still more saturated fat than most veggie chips and potato chips on the market.
There is no debating that these are delicious and they are very popular. If your family enjoys these, they’re fine to keep offering but you may need to remortgage your house.
If you’re in the beige phase and your child likes crunchy foods like chips, these pea snaps could be a reasonable stretching food. Join Toddler Mealtimes or Family Mealtimes for more help with stretching food preferences and building confidence with food.