Cheezels are a brand of Australian

snack food A snack is a small portion of Human food, food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including Food packaging, packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at ho ...

currently produced by

Snack Brands Australia Snackbrands (SBA) is one of the largest suppliers of snack foods in Australia and acts as the main competitor to the long established The Smith's Snackfood Company. The company was founded in August 1998 as a subsidiary of parent company Sna ...

. Made from

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

and

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

, they are a crisp puffy ring with a strong, savoury

cheddar cheese Cheddar cheese (or simply cheddar) is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white (or orange if colourings such as annatto are added), and sometimes sharp-tasting. It originates from the English village of Cheddar, Somerset, Cheddar in ...

flavour and aroma. They are similar in texture to

cheese puffs Cheese puffs, cheese curls, cheese balls, cheese ball puffs, cheesy puffs, or corn curls are a puffed corn snack, coated with a mixture of cheese or cheese-flavored powders. They are manufactured by extruding heated corn dough through a die th ...

, American

Cheetos Cheetos (formerly styled as Chee-tos until 1998) is a crunchy corn- cheese puff snack brand made by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. Fritos creator Charles Elmer Doolin invented Cheetos in 1948, and began national distribution in the United ...

, or Canadian Cheezies. In some countries they are distributed by Laura Matte (which since 2016 has been owned by

Universal Robina Universal Robina Corporation, abbreviated as URC and also known as Universal Robina, is a Philippine company headquartered in Quezon City. It is one of the largest food and beverage companies in the Philippines, along with San Miguel Corporat ...

Corporation, and previously by The Real McCoy Snackfood Company). In Malaysia, Cheezels were originally produced by

Danone Danone S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in 1919 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris, where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock mark ...

and later by

Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

, and are currently owned by

Mondelēz International Mondelēz International, Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational confectionery, food industry, food, Holding company, holding, drink industry, beverage and snack food company based in Chicago. Mondelez has an annual rev ...

, together with

Twisties Twisties are a type of cheese curl corn-based snack food product, available mainly in Australia and other Oceanian countries. In Europe they are marketed as Fonzies, and in France as "Belin Croustilles". It was launched in 1950 by the General Fo ...

. In New Zealand, Cheezels are manufactured by Bluebird Foods Ltd a

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...

company, which is a competitor to Snack Brands Australia, the manufacturer of Cheezels in Australia. The New Zealand version of Cheezels are not as crisp in texture or as strong cheddar cheese flavour as their Australian counterpart.

History

According to any modern packet of Cheezels, the snack entered the market in 1971. Company folklore has it that the creative team were stuck for a name when the boss chipped in with "Just call 'em Cheezels". As of 2017 Cheezels are

gluten free A gluten-free diet (GFD) is a nutritional plan that strictly excludes gluten, which is a mixture of prolamin proteins found in wheat (and all of its species and hybrids, such as spelt, kamut, and triticale), as well as barley, rye, and oats ...

Flavours

Usually, Cheezels are made from corn and rice,Snack Brands Cheezels web page
/ref> and many kinds of powdered cheeses. Other flavours of the snack have been produced by Snack Brands Australia, such as: *Original Cheese *

Pizza Pizza is an Italian cuisine, Italian, specifically Neapolitan cuisine, Neapolitan, dish typically consisting of a flat base of Leavening agent, leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high t ...

*Smokin' BBQ *Cheese & Bacon - also previously known as Rashers Cheese & Bacon *Hoops & Crosses Burger Flavoured -

cheeseburger A cheeseburger is a hamburger with one or more slices of melted cheese on top of the meat patty, added near the end of the cooking time. Cheeseburgers can include variations in structure, ingredients and composition. As with other hamburgers, ...

-flavoured Cheezels shaped like the Xs and Os in the game

tic-tac-toe Tic-tac-toe (American English), noughts and crosses (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), or Xs and Os (Canadian English, Canadian or Hiberno-English, Irish English) is a paper-and-pencil game for two players who ta ...

*Minis - miniature versions of Cheezels *Chilli Cheese *Chicken

References

{{reflist Australian snack foods Snack Brands Australia brands Products introduced in 1971 Mondelez International brands

History

Flavours

See also

References