Ever stand in the snack aisle, completely overwhelmed by packages screaming “natural” and “organic” at you? Yeah, us too.
Here’s the thing nobody tells you: those buzzwords mean almost nothing. A bag of crisps can be organic and still be terrible for you. It can be gluten-free and loaded with junk. The real story isn’t on the front of the package—it’s hiding in that tiny ingredient list on the back.
Once you know what you’re actually looking for, the whole thing gets way less confusing. Promise.
What Actually Matters in Your Snack
Real Protein That Does Something
Look, not all protein is created equal. You want to see things like mycoprotein, chickpea flour, lentils, nuts—stuff that actually came from food, not a lab.
Why does this matter? Because protein isn’t just for gym people. It’s what keeps you from being hungry again thirty minutes after you eat. It steadies your energy instead of sending you on that awful spike-and-crash rollercoaster. When we were developing our crisps, we knew we wanted at least 9-10g of protein per serving—enough to actually make a difference in how you feel.
Watch out for “protein isolate” at the top of the ingredient list. That usually means they dumped some powder in there and called it a day.
Fiber That Comes From Actual Plants
Fiber is one of those things everyone knows they should eat more of, but nobody really gets excited about. We get it. But here’s why it matters: it’s literally what keeps you full and your gut happy.
The best fiber comes from whole grains, seeds, vegetables—things that were alive before they ended up in your snack. We pack about 4-5g of fiber into our crisps, which happens naturally when you use mycoprotein. It’s built into the ingredient itself.
Some brands just sprinkle synthetic fiber in at the end. Not evil, just not the same. If you see fiber on the label but can’t find any actual plants or grains in the ingredients, that’s what’s happening.
Fats You’ve Actually Heard Of
Fat got such a bad reputation in the 90s, and honestly, we’re all still recovering from that trauma. The truth? Your body needs fat. Your brain runs on it.
What matters is where it comes from. Olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil—things you’d cook with at home. When you see vague “vegetable oil” or palm oil, that’s a red flag. We use oils we’d actually use in our own kitchens, which seems obvious but apparently isn’t standard practice.
Our 40g serving has 6-8g of fat. Enough to keep you satisfied, not so much that you feel gross after.
Seasonings You Can Pronounce
This one’s simple: if it sounds like something from a chemistry textbook, you probably don’t need to be eating it regularly.
Sea salt? Great. Paprika? Love it. Monosodium glutamate? Maltodextrin? Things ending in numbers like Yellow 5? Hard pass.
When we season our crisps, we use the same spices you’d find in your kitchen. Nothing fancy, nothing weird. Just real flavor from real food.
Ingredient Lists That Make Sense
Pick up a snack. If the ingredient list is longer than a CVS receipt and you need Google to understand half of it, put it back.
Good food doesn’t need forty ingredients. When companies use that many, they’re usually hiding something—making cheap ingredients taste better, extending shelf life forever, or covering up the fact that there’s not much real food in there.
Our ingredient list is short. Mycoprotein, oils, seasonings. That’s basically it. Because that’s all you need.
What to Avoid (The Stuff That’s Just Not Worth It)
Sugar Hiding Under Different Names
Corn syrup, dextrose, maltose, “cane juice,” agave nectar—these are all just sugar pretending to be something fancier. And the worst part? They sneak it into savory snacks where it has no business being.
Sugar in chips is wild to us. Why is it there? To make you crave more. That’s it. We don’t put sugar in our crisps because they’re not supposed to be sweet.
Artificial Colors
Does your food need to be neon orange? Does it need to glow? The answer is no.
Artificial dyes exist for one reason: to make bad food look good. They do nothing for nutrition and some of them are linked to hyperactivity in kids. Our crisps look like the ingredients they’re made from. Turns out, that’s enough.
Preservatives You Can’t Say Out Loud
BHA, BHT, TBHQ, sodium benzoate—these extend shelf life, which sounds practical until you realize good quality food doesn’t need to last until 2050.
We bake our crisps with ingredients that naturally stay fresh. We’re not trying to make them survive the apocalypse. Just long enough to get from our kitchen to yours and taste great when you eat them.
Way Too Much Salt
Some snacks are so salty they make your mouth feel like the Sahara. That’s not an accident—salt masks poor quality ingredients and gets you hooked.
We use salt, obviously. But just enough to bring out the flavor, not so much that it’s all you can taste. Your blood pressure will thank you.
Starch Masquerading as Food
If the first ingredient is corn starch, potato starch, or tapioca starch, you’re basically eating air that pretends to be filling. These break down into sugar fast, spike your energy, then drop you harder than a bad relationship.
In our crisps, mycoprotein comes first. Because protein and fiber keep you going, starch just keeps you snacking.
How to Actually Choose a Good Snack
Next time you’re shopping, flip the package over and ask yourself:
Can I see where the protein comes from? Is there fiber from real food? Are the fats normal oils I’ve heard of? Do I recognize the seasonings? Is this list reasonable or insane?
If most of those answers are no, keep looking.
We made Forma because we were tired of choosing between snacks that taste good and snacks that make us feel good. Turns out, you can have both. You just need real ingredients doing real work.
No mysteries. No chemicals with numbers. No wondering what you just ate.
Just a crisp that tastes great and actually keeps you satisfied until your next meal. That’s it. That’s the whole thing.