What’s the best luxury chip?

Wagyu beef and wasabi cream, Peking duck, caramelised onion & balsamic vinegar – no, this is not a menu from an upmarket restaurant, these are some new flavours in the deluxe potato crisp market. But are these special reserve flavours better for us, or are they just a trend? We set out to help by comparing three leading brands for nutrition, cost and taste.

Nutrition comment

Everyone knows chips are not top of the pops when it comes to nutrition. High in kilojoules, fat and salt – and delivering few useful nutrients – they don’t rank any higher than an occasional food, and only then if most of your food intake is healthy. Like any occasional food however, there are better and worse versions. When choosing, use the 100g column and compare kilojoules, total fat, saturated fat and sodium. The lower all of these are, the better. Then, if you want to delve deeper, look at the ingredient list, where additives like flavourings and preservatives are listed. The less of these the better also.

Bottom line

While the packaging attempts to raise chip status, none of these versions will boost your nutrition. A crisp, whatever its (artificial) flavour, is still a crisp – a high fat, high salt, nutritionally bereft product. And while there may be subtle differences nutritionally, all will promote weight gain and poor health if eaten in quantity.

Products are tested by New Zealand registered nutritionist Bronwen King and a diverse, randomly selected group. The following scoring system was used; 3 points for first place, 2 points for second place and 1 point for 3rd.

Got a product you’d like our team to test? Email us life.style@fairfaxmedia.co.nz.