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Health & Other Diet Advice

Health & Diet

  • Which McCain Products are vegan?

    • Crispy French Fries
    • Home Chips – all variants
    • Quick Chips
    • Quick Cook French Fries
    • Smiles
    • Ready Baked Jackets
    • Lightly Spiced Wedges
    • Sweet Potato Fries
  • Which McCain Products are Gluten Free?

    • Quick Cook French Fries
    • Home Chips – Gluten Free variant
    • Quick Chips
    • Ready Baked Jackets
  • Are potatoes good for you?

    Potatoes can be enjoyed as part of a healthy, balanced diet. They are a virtually fat-free, energy-rich carbohydrate that contains fibre, vitamin C, potassium and iron.

  • Are chips fattening?

    As a responsible food manufacturer, we want to ensure that everyone in the family can enjoy our products as part of a healthy, balanced diet.
    We use simple ingredients and a simple process to make our products. Most of our chips are simply made using potatoes and sunflower oil. Our original oven chips are only 5% fat and our Home Chips Lighter have 30% less fat than standard Home Chips.
    In fact, 95% of our products have only green or amber nutritional indicators across saturated fat, fat, salt and sugar.

  • Why do you use sunflower oil?

    We know our customers want tasty food that can be enjoyed as part of a healthy, balanced diet. That’s why all of our chips are prepared in sunflower oil.
    Sunflower oil is low in saturated fats, but high in polyunsaturated fats, which are thought to keep our hearts healthy.

  • Isn’t sunflower oil fattening?

    Sunflower oil is low in saturated fats (which are bad for our hearts), but high in the polyunsaturated fats (which may help to keep our hearts healthy).

  • Is there a lot of salt in your products?

    In many of our products no salt is added. With recipe reformulation, we have reduced salt in our products by 22% since 2001. As an early signatory to the Department of Health’s 2017 Responsibility Deal salt targets, our commitment in this area continues.

  • Are your products high in saturated fats?

    Currently, 95% of our products carry green or amber nutritional indicators across saturated fat, fat, salt and sugar.
    We reduced saturated fat by 70% in our products between 2007 and 2012, through using sunflower oil to lightly fry our products during the manufacturing process.

  • Do you use artificial ingredients?

    We don’t use any artificial colours or flavours in our products.

  • What are e-numbers and do your products contain any?

    E-numbers are codes for standard food additives that have all passed strict safety tests and are considered safe to use throughout the European Union (the ‘E’ of an E number stands for ‘Europe’).*
    We aim to only use kitchen cupboard ingredients in our products and our policy is to remove all E-numbers wherever we can.
    Full ingredients information for our products can be found on-pack or on the ‘PRODUCTS’ section of this website.

    *Source, the European Food Council website

  • Are any of your products suitable for consumers avoiding gluten?

    A number of our products are suitable for a non-gluten diet. If you go to the ‘PRODUCTS’ section of our website, you’ll be able to see nutritional information for all of our products.

  • Do you display allergens on your product packaging?

    We clearly label the most common allergens on our packs, where applicable (you’ll see them in capital letters and bolded on the ingredients panel).
    You can also see allergen information for all our products on the ‘PRODUCTS’ section of our website.

  • What are your healthiest products?

    While all of our products can be enjoyed as part of a healthy balanced diet, we offer consumers a range of healthier products to choose from. Our Home Chips Lighter contain 30% less fat than standard Home Chips, and our Ready Baked Jackets boast all green nutritional indicators, which means they are low in fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar.

  • Isn’t fresh food better for you than frozen?

    There is no firm evidence that states fresh produce is better than frozen, or vice versa. Frozen food does have a number of benefits. With frozen, you only cook what you need – the rest can be stored and used at a later date, offering greater portion control and potentially reducing waste. And, of course, frozen food is convenient to cook, requiring very little preparation.*

    *British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF).