Crackers

What's the crack with this savoury snack?

Long gone are the days when you have to settle for a plain cream cracker that’s been hiding at the back of the cupboard for months...

Now, the choice includes rice cakes, spelt cakes and crisp breads amongst many others. And, you don’t have to settle for the standard size and shape either - there’s everything including thin versions, mini versions and breadsticks.

With so many options available, it’s unsurprising that consumer research suggested sales were up 6.9 per cent in 2015.

Rethinking cracker snacks

So, how do you pick a healthy a choice with so many cracker varieties flooding the supermarket shelves? Varying in ingredients, nutrients and how they may impact blood sugar, it's certainly worth thinking about.

Whether your crackers are part of a main meal or a stand-alone light snack, it’s important to think about what it contains and what you are going to top it with...

Some ideas follow later on this page, but why not seek some inspiration from ourrecipe finder?

Cracker nutrition: fibre

Many crackers now have a higher-fibre option, using wholemeal flour, wheatgerm or added nuts and seeds to boost flavour and provide some extra nutrition.

Fibre is important for our gut health, and also helps reduce blood cholesterol levels which lowers your risk of heart disease.

Having more fibre also helps to manage diabetes – fibre reduces the GI, which is a ranking of how quickly a food or drink will make blood glucose levels rise.

Adults should be aiming for at least 30g of fibre each day, which is difficult to achieve without including wholegrains in your diet.

So, why not swap to a wholegrain cracker and feel fuller for longer?

Hidden salt in crackers

Three quarters of the salt we eat is from foods we have bought outside the home, and some crackers can often contain worryingly high amounts.

Check the labels carefully and try choose crackers that are green for salt (less than or equal to 0.3g per 100g).

Helping with weight control

If you're trying to achieve a healthy weight, crackers can provide a lighter option: two multigrain crackers is around 64kcal compared to approximately 250kcal in two slices of multigrain bread. With this simple swap, you could be making a saving of 186kcal.

And the savings don’t have to stop there.

Just 10g of butter – a thin scraping on two crackers – packs around 74kcal and 8g fat. Whereas, 1 lighter cheese triangle is around 25kcal and only 1.2g of fat. Or, 30g of a hard cheese such as cheddar is 125kcal and 10.5g fat, unlike 30g of Edam which is 95kcal and 7.1g fat.

Remember, it’s important to ensure that our whole diet is balanced, so why not get in an extra portion of fruit andveg by adding some tomato, cucumber or sliced pepper to your cracker topping?

Ideas for cracker topping and dips

Wave goodbye to boring snacks with these delicious options for healthier, more satisfying toppings and dips for your cracker...

• Beetroot hummus
• Caramelised onion moutabal
• Red pepper and tomato salsa
• Healthy hummus

Popular cracker brands under the spotlight

We chose a selection of crackers, crispbreads and breadsticks to give you an idea of what’s available and how different varieties compare in terms of calories, fat, saturated fat, salt and fibre.

All individual cracker weights are approximate.

*These nutritional values were accurate at the time of publication, but some of these values may have changed. Please check the food labels for the latest nutritional information.

Original Ritz Crackers

Hovis Extra Wheatgerm Crackers

Jacob's Choice Grain Multigrain Crackers

Ryvita Dark Rye Crispbread

Nairn's Gluten-Free Wholegrain Crackers

Nairn's Rough Oatcakes

Kallo Lightly Salted Wholegrain Low Fat Rice Cakes

Tuc Cheese Sandwich

Biona Organic Spelt Cakes

Waitrose All Butter Cheddar Twists

Jacob's Cream Crackers

Carr's Table Water

Kallo Belgian Milk Chocolate Organic Rice Cake Thins

Dr. Karg's Seeded Spelt Crackers

Ocado Italian Original Breadsticks

Snack A Jacks – Salt and Vinegar

A closer look at the numbers – and what they mean for your diet

Fats and saturated fat

Surprisingly, we found that several of the options were high in fat and saturated fat. The name gives a clue in some cases – eg 'all butter' or 'cheese sandwich' – but it takes a closer look at the ingredients list to find that many of the crackers contain palm oil in the first three ingredients.

Possibly not so surprisingly, many of the crackers also had moderate or high amounts of salt, either as a headline flavouring or included in the ingredients list.

The good news is that, with around 30 kcals per cracker.

Pesky packaging

We included a chocolate-coated thin rice cake to highlight how packaging can often be misleading. Although the rice cake appears to be a low-calorie and lighter snack choice, it's actually high in fat, saturated fat and sugar given the generous coating of milk chocolate. This is an example of where it can be a better choice to.

For example, try topping your rice cake with any of the following for a delicious, filling snack:

• chopped fruit
• a scraping of nut butter and sliced apple
• salmon and light cream cheese
• hummus and grated carrot.