Life’s Questions: How Many Potatoes Are in a Bag of Crisps?

Whether you choose an XXL family-sized bag or a small children’s bag, a large part of most crisp packets is filled with air. The rest (fortunately) with the delicious, crunchy, salty snack. But how many potatoes actually go into a bag of crisps?

Number of potatoes in a bag of crisps?

Of course, the number of potatoes needed to make a bag of crisps depends on the size of the bag and the type of crisps. There are also various factors that influence the quantity:

• Slice thickness: Thinly sliced crisps require more potatoes per unit of weight than thickly sliced crisps.
• Type of potato: The type of potato (high or low in moisture content) can also affect the number of potatoes needed.
• Production process: Some production processes may require more potatoes, depending on how the crisps are processed and fried.

Three potatoes

I asked farmer and crisp producer Henk Scheele, co-owner of Hoeksche Chips (my personal favourite: the black pepper flavour) for some figures. Henk: “More than three kilograms of potatoes are needed to make one kilogram of crisps. There can be some variation depending on the season. The potato’s dry-matter content is lower at the start of the season (August) than at the end (July).”

He continues: “About five potatoes go into a kilo.” This means that fifteen potatoes are needed for a kilo of crisps. In other words: a 200-gram bag contains three potatoes.

Scheele: “To be more precise: a crisping potato contains 78 per cent water. That leaves 22 per cent for the crisps, but the crisps contain approximately 30 per cent sunflower oil, so that is added as well. So one kilogram of potatoes (about five potatoes) produces 0.29 kg of crisps.”

Read also:

• What other countries put on their fries
• Why everything tastes better with satay sauce
• Nine snack names you need to know