Quavers are a deep-fried potato-based

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

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 ...

. Launched in the UK in 1968, they were originally made by Smith's in their factory on Newark Road in the Bracebridge area of Lincoln. Since 1997 they have been produced by Walkers. The name comes from the musical note,

quaver 180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest. 180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together. An eighth note ( American) or a quaver (British) is a musical note play ...

History

Quavers were launched in 1968 with the advertising slogan "you get a lovely lot of Quavers in a bag", described as "curly potato puffs". The brand was originally sold in

cheese Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...

and smoky bacon flavours, but over the years flavours like Spicy Beef, Sweet and Sour, Prawn Cocktail, and Ketchup were also part of the range. In 1993, a Salt and Vinegar flavour was added to the range, and by this time, the packaging transitioned to the Walkers brand name. Walkers, owned by

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 ...

, purchased the Quavers brand in July 1995, when it became one of the

Frito Lay Frito-Lay, Inc. (; ) is an American food company that manufactures, markets, and sells snack foods. It began in the early 1930s as two companies, the Frito Company and H.W. Lay & Company, that merged in 1961. Frito-Lay itself merged with the ...

International brand names. In 1996, a Tangy Tomato flavour was added to the range. By 1997, the brand was part of Walkers' short-lived "Snackshack" range, and was relaunched twice in April 1998 and in March 1999. In October 1998, the first relaunch coincided with the return of Prawn Cocktail with a new recipe (as such, was branded as "New") replacing Tangy Tomato, while the second relaunch coincided with a newly refreshed Cheese flavour. Another packaging refresh took place in July 2000. In August 2002, a "Streaky Bacon" flavour was added to the range, which contained pink and brown pieces, that resembled bacon. In September 2004, Ghost-shaped Cheese Quavers were released for Halloween, and returned in September 2005. In February 2007, Walkers changed the packaging for Quavers, Wotsits, Squares, French Fries and Monster Munch. This packaging reflected the usage of sunseed oil, which was used in all products. The Multipack bags were in a different layout, being in Landscape style. Quavers' logo was changed slightly, and the flavours remained the same. In December 2009, Quavers, Wotsits, Squares, and French Fries all changed their packaging again to coincide with a "99 Calories or Less" range with a consumers' focus on “New Year New Me”. The Cheese flavour was reduced to 87 Calories for a standard pack. In February 2011, Quavers packaging updated to a brighter bag colour with the Walkers logo on the packets again. After a while, the brand was sold in simply Cheese flavour. In July 2013, the six-packs were reduced in size removing 30% of the wrapping but keeping the same amount of bags inside. In August 2019, the packaging was updated alongside other Walkers Snacks, to inform about a reduction in plastic used on the packet. In December 2020, Walkers announced that Prawn Cocktail and Salt and Vinegar would return to shelves in January 2021 due to popular demand.

Description

The primary ingredient in Quavers is

potato starch Potato starch is starch extracted from potatoes. The cells of the root tubers of the potato plant contain leucoplasts (starch grains). To extract the starch, the potatoes are crushed, and the starch grains are released from the destroyed cells. Th ...

. They are deep fried to give a snack with a similar texture to

krupuk ' (Javanese language, Javanese) is an Indonesian cuisine, Indonesian deep frying, deep-fried Cracker (food), cracker made from starch and other ingredients that serve as flavouring. They are a popular snack in parts of Southeast Asia, but are ...

(prawn crackers), but have a different flavour and are smaller with a curled-up rectangle shape (similar in

cross-section Cross section may refer to: * Cross section (geometry) ** Cross-sectional views in architecture and engineering 3D * Cross section (geology) * Cross section (electronics) * Radar cross section, measure of detectability * Cross section (physics) ...

to a

). The product line went on to introduce two other flavours, prawn cocktail and salt and vinegar. These were discontinued in 2012.

Ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and sour flavor. "Ketchup" now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes for different varieties contained mushrooms, oysters, mussels, egg whites, grapes, or walnuts, amon ...

and sweet and sour flavours were also introduced, but for a limited time only and are no longer available. In January 2021, Quavers returned two long-lost flavours (prawn cocktail and salt & vinegar) by popular demand. A one pack (16.4 g) serving of regular Quavers contains 88

calories The calorie is a unit of energy that originated from the caloric theory of heat. The large calorie, food calorie, dietary calorie, kilocalorie, or kilogram calorie is defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one liter o ...

, of which 44 are from fat. Quavers contain a mixture of fats (4.9g):

saturated fat A saturated fat is a type of fat in which the fatty acid chains have all single bonds between the carbon atoms. A fat known as a glyceride is made of two kinds of smaller molecules: a short glycerol backbone, and fatty acids that each cont ...

0.4g,

polyunsaturated fat In biochemistry and nutrition, a polyunsaturated fat is a fat that contains a polyunsaturated fatty acid (abbreviated PUFA), which is a subclass of fatty acid characterized by a backbone with two or more carbon–carbon double bonds. Some polyunsa ...

0.6g and

monounsaturated fat In biochemistry and nutrition, a monounsaturated fat is a fat that contains a monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA), a subclass of fatty acid characterized by having a double bond in the fatty acid chain with all of the remaining carbon atoms being s ...

3.8g. The

sodium Sodium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Na (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 element, group 1 of the peri ...

content is 170mg. Quavers have 86 calories in their Cheese flavour and 83 in the salt and vinegar variety.

Varieties

Main range

*Cheese *Prawn cocktail *Salt and Vinegar (discontinued) *BBQ Sauce *Bacon (discontinued) *Cheese and onion (discontinued) *Chinese Spicy Beef (discontinued)

Limited edition

*Ketchup (discontinued) *Sweet and sour (discontinued)

References

External links

*
''Quavers'' packaging, from 1995 with Walkers logo
{{PepsiCo British snack foods The Smith's Snackfood Company brands Walkers (snack foods) brands Potato dishes Deep fried foods Products introduced in 1968