Harry: From calorie count to portion sizes,
we wanted to find out all the differences
between Lay's and Walkers in the US and the UK.
This is "Food Wars."
We'll start with a quick note
to explain their different names.
Walkers used to be its own company
and was the most popular crisp brand in the UK.
Frito-Lay actually acquired Walkers in 1989,
but they decided to still use the brand name in the UK
so all that brand loyalty didn't go to waste.
In the UK, Walkers crisps come in five portion sizes.
A multipack 25-gram bag,
a 32.5-gram bag,
a 45-gram bag,
a 65-gram bag,
and a 175-gram sharing bag.
The smallest that's in the multipack bag is 28 grams.
Then we move up to a 78-gram bag,
a 226-gram bag,
and then our party-size bag, 368 grams.
That means our biggest bag is 110% larger
than the biggest bag in the UK.
A few other things to note.
In the UK, if you get a flavored bag,
it's the same weight as the ready-salted version.
Whereas in the US, our flavored bags
weigh less than the original-flavored bags.
Take this bag of salt and vinegar chips.
It weighs 7.75 ounces,
compared to the classic regular-salted 8-ounce bag.
Back in 2014, PepsiCo claimed the reason
there is a slightly higher price per ounce
for flavored chips is the added seasoning.
OK, before we continue,
they're telling us, "Weighs less, costs more
because we're adding more seasoning." Right, guys?
Well, I got a question for you, PepsiCo.
[grunting]
What does that say there?
Says "Lightly Salted."
So I understand this has less salt than these guys?
Huh.
Closer inspection: right there, 7 3/4 ounces.
Not the full 8.
If there's less seasoning and salt in here,
why is it a smaller ounce and a higher price?
They're stealing my salt!
Salt, literally the cheapest thing on the planet.
We have a whole ocean full of it,
and yet they're still skimping on it!
Your move, PepsiCo.
This 28-gram bag of chips supposedly has 15 chips in it,
according to Lay's website.
Well, they lied about the salt,
what else are they lying about?
I'm going to count the crisps
in this 25-gram bag for comparison.
These chips are demolished.
I feel like it's more than 15.
This is what we call the
stoner-math section of "Food Wars."
We do the math so you stoners don't have to.
All right. So, one, two.
That's a whole one.
Little peephole.
Absolute Frankenstein of a crisp, this.
Arguably not one put-together chip in here.
OK, let's just ...
that's a chip, that's a chip, right?
So, the issue there is that the crisps
are all vastly different sizes.
Like, this one, just one crisp, but it's tiny,
whereas this one, also one crisp, but way bigger.
And we've ended up with 22.
Of all the arbitrary things we do on this show,
this has to be the most arbitrary.
Wow, look at that, everyone!
They gave me an extra chip.
16 instead of 15.
The last thing we wanted to check
was how much air you're getting in your bags.
Walkers in the UK are kind of notorious
for seemingly underfilling the bags.
We're going to find the volume of the bag
and then the volume of the crisps inside
to find out just how much wasted space there is.
What I need to do is carefully open the bag
just enough to let the air out,
and then I'm going to try and powder these,
like just crush them as far as I can,
and then measure the volume of the powder in this thing.
First I gotta crumble it up.
[whispering] Crushing bags with Harry.
[bag crackling]
Oh, this is like ... [growls].
It's quite therapeutic.
It feels like I'm giving a massage.
Just, like, the world's worst massage.
I need something to kind of tamp it down,
'cause the air is stuck in there, so I'll just use,
oh, I don't know,
this pair of nunchucks!
Oh, yeah!
Now, step two is going to be
to find the volume of the bag itself.
So we're going to fill the bag with water
to try and find the volume.
Oh, God. Oh.
Tiny bit more.
Perfect.
Sarah: OK. We did it!
But now I have to get it in there
without spilling it everywhere.
Three, two, one, go.
[laughing]
Sarah: Oh, that is perfect!
Harry: Look at that!
That went pretty well.
We didn't spill water everywhere.
Oh, my God, it's, like, right to the top there.
That's crazy how that worked. OK.
Buchi and Wumi are making a triumphant return.
Go and watch the Oreos episode if you haven't already.
Some of that,
and then measure the rest.
Y'all brought number two!
[laughing] Oh, God.
Can you see the bits of stuff floating around in there?
So, according to my trusted friend
PercentageCalculator.net,
around 90% of a 25-gram Walkers bag is wasted space.
I don't know what the math is
I'm supposed to be figuring out, I forgot,
but whoever's editing this, take all those numbers,
and this is the conclusion.
Now, that air is actually there for a reason.
It's nitrogen gas, which helps preserve the chips
and also acts as a cushion
to stop them getting smashed in transit.
I mean, imagine what it'd be like
if it didn't have all that air in there.
So, as much air as there is in there,
it's actually vitally important.
If anything, they should put more air in these things,
'cause these things, they turn into dust.
Into dust!
Here are all the Walkers products from the UK
that you won't find in the US.
And here is everything you can only get in the US
and not in the UK.
I am losing my mind, let's go!
I want to start with a couple
of linguistic/stylistic differences
rather than anything else.
For example, in the UK,
we call our classic Walkers ready salted,
as opposed to original.
I believe this is a reference to the very old days of crisps
where what you would actually get
is just, like, a bag of plain crisps,
and then you would have to add your own salt.
These ones are ready salted.
You don't have to add any salt, it's already on there.
One stylistic difference that's worth pointing out
is that in the UK, our salt and vinegar chips are green.
I will say Walkers is kind of the only brand that does that.
And then we're on to some actual exclusive flavors.
We'll start with this one, which is cheese and onion.
Now, Americans don't have cheese and onion,
which might shock a few Brits
because it's one of the most popular flavors here.
Instead they have I think, like, cheddar and sour cream
and sour cream and onion.
It just ruins your breath.
Your breath smells so bad after these.
How did I get so lucky?
I love chips, I love different flavors,
I love trying new varieties, and I hate paying for it.
So this is perfect for me.
I'm going to start with a flavor
that I never even heard of, cheddar jalapeño.
Oh, my God!
I like the kick on these.
It reminds me of the cheddar and sour cream,
which I can't believe you guys don't have.
This flavor took over about 20 years ago,
and I don't know why it's so good, but it is good!
Love this flavor.
If I had to rank them though,
I'll put the jalapeño above that one,
the cheddar and sour cream.
Sour cream and onion, I don't even got to open these.
Sour cream and onion, classic flavor.
I mean, barbecue in America is amazing.
I mean, this is just a classic, classic flavor.
Oh, man. Fantastic.
But how does that compare to sweet Southern heat barbecue?
Southern heat!
Oh, yeah.
I put these above these.
Then we got honey barbecue.
How sweet is this one going to be?
You got greedy with the sweetness.
Ooh, chili lime.
Yeah, dude. I've never had these before.
Chilies and limes.
See that? Chilies, limes.
Fantastic combination.
Ooh, I don't know how I feel about these.
It's like, I wasn't into them before,
but now I kind of can't stop eating them.
Another iconic British flavor
that's also exclusive is prawn cocktail.
Brits became really obsessed with prawn cocktail
in, like, the '70s, I think it was.
It just became a sort of trendy thing
to serve at dinner parties.
I'm not mad about that, because it is a really tasty one.
It just kind of tastes tomatoey,
because it was usually served with
a tomato mayo-Worcestershire sauce combination.
Next we've got a personal favorite of mine,
which is Marmite crisps.
God, I love Marmite. Marmite is fantastic.
The slogan was, "You either love it or you hate it,"
and it does still ring true, I think, for most people.
I'm firmly in the love-it camp.
Bit of tang from the amount of salt that's in there.
Fantastic crisp.
Harry was nice enough to send me some of his UK exclusives,
which I'm going to look at right now.
Where do I want to start?
I guess all start — oh, no.
Marmite.
I don't get why people love Marmite.
Ugh!
I mean, it tastes exactly like ass.
I hear millennials like that,
so maybe that's a selling point for them.
They should actually be like, "Tastes like ass,"
'cause the kids are into that these days, but I am not.
Then we have a couple of meaty options,
which I'm surprised you guys don't have in the States.
We kind of love combining crisps and meat, as it seems,
starting with these roast chicken crisps.
Another meaty option is these, which is smoky bacon.
Then we have these ones,
which are tomato-ketchup-flavored Walkers.
In my opinion, prawn cocktail does ketchup
better than ketchup does ketchup.
And then for the last of our standard crisp flavors,
we have pickled onion.
Pickled onion's another thing
that's kind of iconic to British culture
in the same way that maybe prawn cocktail or Marmite are,
just 'cause it's quite traditional
to find a big jar of pickled onions or pickled eggs in pubs,
and you'd have one of those as a bar snack
while you're drinking your pint.
The complaint I often have against pickles
and pickled onions is that they're not tangy enough.
And these are very tangy, so good job, Walkers.
Puckering pickled onion.
What does that mean?
Puckering? Like [makes kissing sound]?
Like I'm being kissed by a pickled onion?
Yo, these suck!
Hey, Joe, can I try some of those?
Hey, Harry, try some of these great American flavors!
Thank you!
Let's start with the limón.
That's what I've got in my hand.
Ooh, those are lemony!
Whew!
I don't think I've ever had a citrus crisp before.
That is not something that we have in the UK.
Those are good.
I gotta say, love these chips.
Yeah.
I got to score a bag of these.
Chesapeake Bay crab seasoning Lay's.
Uh-oh!
Yuelei: No?
Yeah, no, these are bad. Put these at the bottom.
These are at my 7-Eleven.
Tomato-and-chili-flavored chips, which sounds amazing.
I'm going to pronounce this wrong. Sabritas?
Adobadas.
"Hecho en Mexico."
Oh, yeah, dude!
Not that spicy. They remind me kind of
a little bit like Takis.
Look how red this is.
Don't you think they'd be super spicy?
I like that.
These chip brands,
they're all going after each other's throats.
It is really just like guerrilla warfare.
You guys don't understand what's going on
in our grocery stores in this country.
This is an uneasy mafia alliance in Chip City.
No.
Because when it's thin like these,
it brings out the flavor more,
if that makes sense, and it's too strong.
It turns out if you put Doritos Cool Ranch seasoning
on anything, it'll taste good.
Dill pickle.
So, I hate pickles.
Oof.
[groaning]
I hate them!
Put these at the bottom of every list.
I don't know what the Flamin' Hot dill pickle chips
taste like, but the regular dill pickle chips
are absolutely disgusting.
These sound phenomenal.
Flamin' Hot dill-pickle-flavored crisps.
Match made in heaven for me.
You get the heat, you get that little bit of tang
to kind of cut through it.
If I could take one of these four
and have them in the UK permanently, these ones.
One thing Walkers utilize a lot in the UK
are promotional flavors.
So currently what they've got going on
is one where they've partnered
with four different restaurants from around the UK
to showcase some different cuisines.
So that means that we now have
fish-and-chip-flavored Walkers,
Madras-curry-flavored Walkers,
Thai-green-curry-flavored Walkers,
and chicken burrito Walkers.
At one point they made a Cajun squirrel flavor.
I'm not making that up.
This one looks really good. Thai green curry?
Think I'm gonna like this.
Yuck. Yuck!
Rank them down.
Fish and chips. OK.
I like fish and chips. Hang on.
It smells like cat food.
Now I can't stop thinking about dry cat food.
All right. I like fish and chips.
This is the worst one.
This is so — [choking].
I'm gonna throw up.
Crown it. This is the worst chip I've ever eaten,
the worst chip I've ever reviewed,
and this might be the worst thing I've ever tasted.
Like, I feel like I'm on a prank show.
"We farted in a bag, gotcha!"
Like, oh, you know, like —
In the UK, Walkers has a range of Baked crisps,
which I guess are marketed as
kind of like a healthier option.
These come in four flavors:
salt and vinegar, cheese and onion,
sour cream and onion, prawn cocktail.
We also have Baked potato chip options,
and one Baked flavor you can get here
you can't get it in the UK is this, the barbecue Baked.
Besides the Baked,
there are also these other healthier options
for Lay's potato chips fans.
It's known as the Better for You range of potato chips,
and you can't get them in the UK.
You can get them here in the US, including these,
the before-mentioned lightly salted chips.
Besides these, you can get lightly salted barbecue,
wavy lightly salted, Simply sea salt thick-cut,
and Simply barbecue thick-cut.
If you like crunchy chips, Lay's also has you covered.
They have their Kettle Cooked series.
Here's four of the flavors that I could find.
Original.
Flamin' Hot. You guys want me to open these?
[laughing]
These are so red.
These win the reddest-chip award.
Look how red these are.
Like my eyes. Ahh!
I like the flavor of these, but they're not very hot.
Oh, wait, yeah, they are. Ooh, yeah.
Oh, man, the Kettle Cooked jalapeño.
I think this whole kettle-chip thing
was just a ruse to go after Miss Vickie's.
Yep. They're, like, really similar.
And I love those Miss Vickie chips.
Sea salt and vinegar.
Sea salt and cracked pepper.
Other Kettle Cooked flavors I could not get my hands on
include the mesquite barbecue, the Maui onion —
oh, I would have loved those —
and, of course, the reduced-fat original.
Sorry.
We'll start with this one, which is Max Punchy Paprika.
Now, I'm surprised you guys don't have more
paprika-flavored crisps in the US,
'cause it's a really good flavor.
I like how they have a
"not actual size" warning on this bag,
just in case you thought that one crisp
was the size of your head as well.
Next up we've got Sizzling Flame-Grilled Steak Max crisps.
Now, these ones I'm interested by.
These are Max crisps,
and they are double crunch KFC Zinger flavor.
I think in the UK, we have a sort of
hot chicken sandwich at KFC called a Zinger burger,
and supposedly these are flavored like that.
Little Guy Fieri flames on the chip there.
Yeah, pretty good.
See, the flavor is not very strong,
but they're not kidding on the double crunch.
This is like [crunching],
"I'm a man! I want to take my crunching to the max!
Bleh!" Like, this is —
If the Zinger crisps somehow weren't enough KFC for you,
then we also just have a kind of standard
KFC Max crisp as well.
The next one we have is this Fiercely Flamin' Hot flavor.
Then we've got a few Max Strong crisps,
which I think are Walkers' attempt
to market to quite a specific demographic,
which is mostly male, a little bit older,
and kind of, like, the blokey, laddie types.
And it says "perfect with beer" underneath. Like ...
Putting the marketing to one side for a second,
they come in three flavors,
which are hot chicken wings, fiery peri-peri,
and jalapeño and cheese.
Then our final three Max flavors are these three,
which are loaded cheddar and onion,
bold barbecue ribs,
and XXL chicken and chorizo flavored.
You can also get Lay's Wavy chips,
which is their shameless rip-off of Ruffles.
And with Wavys, they come in flavors
of reduced-fat original;
original, which I think are these;
I brought the ranch!
Hickory barbecue, salt and pepper, and lightly salted,
and one that I think is limited,
because it says on the bag.
Look what I found.
I don't even think Harry knows I got these.
Carnitas street tacos Wavys.
Hell yes.
Whoa, smells good.
Oh, smells real good, actually.
Uh-oh. These aren't that good.
Trying to get flavored carnitas and onion
and cilantro and lime
all in a chip is very difficult.
Good effort, guys, good attempt, but I mean ...
Next up we've got Sensations,
which is Walkers' range of slightly more upmarket crisps.
They come with this very sleek black packaging.
They have the kind of slightly fancier flavor descriptions.
So, the classic Sensations come in four flavors,
which are as follows:
got this one, which is hickory-smoked cheddar and bacon.
This one, which is roasted chicken and thyme,
personal favorite of mine.
And we've got this one, which is balsamic vinegar
and caramelized onion.
And a firm crowd favorite on the end here,
which is Thai sweet chili Sensations.
Now, finally, Sensations also offer these
lime and coriander chutney Poppadoms.
Also in the US you can get something called Stax,
which is this. It's not so much, I don't think,
unique flavors, it's just a different chip vessel.
Clearly, Lay's is going after Pringles.
I mean, they're all going after each other.
These chip brands, man, they are cutthroat.
Let's find out how good of a job
the Stax do
protecting their chips.
Did that really do that good of a job
protecting these chips?
They're still, some of them are broken.
Ooh, Buffalo wings with ranch. All right.
Xtra Flamin' Hot, Yuelei.
Ready to turn it up?
Surely you jest.
These are not spicy at all.
Whoa, major letdown.
That's Xtra Flamin' Hot, and this is Flamas Xtreme.
But different colors, and it's worded differently.
Jesus.
If you saw this color in the wild,
you're in trouble. Turn around and run.
Spicy Chile Limón.
It's like, how do we make our chips worse on your palate
and worse for the environment?
Ta-da. Stax were born.
Avoid.
Other flavors I was not able to get my hands on
by time of filming this: bacon and cheddar potato skins,
mesquite barbecue, and Flamas.
Poppables, which is them going after Doritos 3D,
and Doritos 3D was just Doritos going after Bugles.
They got four flavors.
I got all four. I can't believe it.
Those flavors are sea salt,
sea salt and vinegar.
Yo, what's up?! Salty!
Honey barbecue.
White cheddar.
I don't want to try these at all, but I feel like I should.
What is this?
It's like a little, like, chip pod.
What is the point of this?
I don't like Poppables.
We do have Stax in the UK,
but they're marketed under the Doritos brand name
rather than the Walkers brand name.
We also used to have Poppables,
but it seems like they've recently been discontinued.
That said, we do have a bunch of other exclusive snacks
marketed under the Walkers brand name.
We'll start with Wotsits,
which I think are like our equivalent of Cheetos.
We used to be able to get Cheetos in the UK,
but then they got taken off the shelves.
Basically what we have are these, like,
baked cheesy puff snacks.
The standard flavor is cheese,
which is this blue one here,
but they also come in the form of Flamin' Hot.
And you can get both flavors either as a small version
or as a giant version.
Next up we've got Monster Munch,
which are these kind of puffed corn, maize snacks
in the shape of a monster claw.
And you can get them flavored
with either pickled onion, roast beef,
or in Flamin' Hot,
which unfortunately I couldn't find today.
Just like Wotsits, you can get them
as the regular size or as the giant size.
Next up we've got Quavers.
These are kind of like a thin, puffed curly snack,
and they usually come flavored with cheese
but are also available as salt and vinegar
or as prawn cocktail versions.
And then finally we have Squares.
Squares are these very thin,
as you can imagine, square-shaped crisps.
Very crunchy, usually quite flavorful. I quite like those.
And they come in salt and vinegar,
cheese and onion, or ready salted.
Lay's also makes dips.
Creamy jalapeño, smooth ranch dip,
and, of course, French onion.
Yuelei says cheddar and sour cream.
Yeah, that's really good.
We also have a couple more crisp options
sold under the Walkers brand name in the UK
which unfortunately we couldn't get today.
These include French Fries, Bugles, and Mixups.
Are there any questionable ingredients
to look out for in your Lay's and Walkers chips?
As far as the basic salted version
of Lay's chips go, we're fine.
Both in the US and the UK,
they are simply made up of
potatoes, vegetable oil, and salt.
But when you venture into other flavors,
things can get a little more interesting.
For example, in the UK,
several of our flavors contain potassium chloride.
In normal doses, this is a perfectly safe
low-sodium alternative to salt.
However, it's also one of the three ingredients
used in the three-drug cocktail for lethal injections.
Enough potassium chloride in your system
will lead to an irregular heartbeat and a cardiac arrest.
We don't have that in our USA Lay's,
but we do have caramel color in our barbecue
and honey barbecue chips.
Ah, caramel color.
It is a widely used food coloring,
and it's also a controversial one.
Certain types of caramel color can contain a byproduct
called 4-Me upper-case I. That's not an L.
Studies show that it caused cancer in rats and mice,
leading to campaigns in support
of banning it in foods. Makes sense.
The FDA stopped short of banning it,
claiming that humans don't come close to levels of exposure
that caused the rats' tumors.
Sounds like a challenge.
But that didn't stop the state of California
adding it to its Proposition 65 list
of chemicals, quote, "Known to the state of California
to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity," end quote.
Another fun thing to note
is that our smoky bacon and roast chicken crisps
are actually both suitable for vegetarians.
The flavoring is just made up of other things
and doesn't include any meat extract.
Which country has the least healthy crisps?
Let's compare the classic first.
A 28-gram bag of classic Lay's in the US
contains 160 calories.
If we scale up the UK's 25-gram bag
to account for that extra 3 grams,
28 grams of UK ready salted would contain 147 calories.
So per gram, the UK's crisps are healthier in every metric.
OK, fine,
but what about the least healthy chip in each country?
Over here, a lot of them are tied
at 160 calories per 28-gram bag,
but we did find that of the 160-calorie chips,
the highest fat content
are in the cheddar and sour cream.
Obviously the smaller bags.
That makes them the least healthy.
The least healthy crisps in the UK
are the Strong hot chicken wings Max crisps.
28 grams of these would contain ...
Honestly, my main takeaway from this is that
crisps might not be as unhealthy as I thought they were.
You could eat, like, 10 multipack bags of the ready salted,
and the only daily limit you would have exceeded
would be your fat intake.
Yes, Harry, I believe that's called death by deliciousness.
I live by the motto,
"Live fast, die fat, and leave a salty corpse."
That's actually my LinkedIn headline.
Have you ever seen that thing about how
if you look at the KFC logo,
it looks like a stick-man body
with the head of Colonel Sanders on it?
Is there anything worse than when you're hungry
and you're like, "I'm gonna try something new,"
and it stinks?
You don't even stop being hungry because you're full.
You're, like, no longer hungry 'cause it tasted so bad.
Ugh, that's the worst. That's this.
I don't know if XXL is referring to the crisps,
the size of the packet, or the chickens that they're using.
Look at how red that chip looks.
Like [growls].