How Many Calories Are in Prawn Crackers?
The free bag that lands with a Chinese takeaway holds about 342 calories — that's the standard 60 g bag, before you've opened the curry. One cracker is about 17 kcal, and per 100 g prawn crackers hit 570. If you've wondered how many calories are in prawn crackers, the short version is: more than crisps, gram for gram.
On this page
- Quick facts
- What a prawn cracker actually is
- Portion maths: one cracker to the whole bag
- Why the airiness misleads
- The salt bill
- How do prawn crackers compare?
- Most popular prawn cracker brands
- FAQ
Quick facts
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 60 g takeaway bag | RI* per bag |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 570 kcal / 2,385 kJ | 342 kcal / 1,431 kJ | 17% |
| Protein | 0.3 g | 0.2 g | 0% |
| Carbohydrates | 58.2 g | 34.9 g | 13% |
| — of which sugars | 2.2 g | 1.3 g | 1% |
| Fat | 39.0 g | 23.4 g | 33% |
| — of which saturates | 3.6 g | 2.2 g | 11% |
| Fibre | 0.9 g | 0.5 g | – |
| Salt | 1.92 g | 1.15 g | 19% |
Verified nutrition data
Numbers on this page come from CoFID, the UK government’s Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset, and from manufacturer labels where a branded product is named. Last verified August 2026. How we verify our data →
*RI = Reference Intake of an average adult (2,000 kcal a day). Figures are for takeaway prawn crackers.
What a prawn cracker actually is
Strip away the name and a prawn cracker is tapioca starch, a whisper of prawn, and a deep-fat fryer. The protein figure gives the game away: 0.3 g per 100 g. Less than one third of one percent of a prawn cracker is protein of any kind, prawn or otherwise.
The fryer does the rest. The starch discs puff up in hot oil and soak it in like sponges, which is how a starch-based snack ends up carrying 39 g of fat per 100 g. Roughly six of every ten calories in the bag come from the oil, not the cracker.
That composition also explains why the bag is free. Starch and oil cost the restaurant pennies, so the crackers are cheap goodwill. In calorie terms the economics flip: per gram, that free bag is the most expensive thing on the table. Free food still gets logged.
Portion maths: one cracker to the whole bag
- One cracker (~3 g): about 17 kcal
- Half a bag (30 g): about 171 kcal
- Full takeaway bag (60 g): about 342 kcal
The useful reframe: 342 kcal is not a garnish, it's a light main course eaten before the main course. Three or four crackers alongside your food is a 50–70 kcal decision. The whole bag while the rice steams is a different order of magnitude, and because each cracker is feather-light, nothing about eating them tells you that.
Two habits fix it. Shared between two people the bag drops to about 171 kcal each, back into side-dish territory. Better still, decant a portion into a bowl and put the rest away: eating from an open bag on the counter is precisely how 60 g of polystyrene-weight snack vanishes before the food arrives.
Why the airiness misleads
Prawn crackers weigh almost nothing, and that is precisely the trap. Judged per 100 g, they out-calorie nearly everything else on the takeaway table: at 570 kcal per 100 g they sit above even doner kebab meat at 377. The texture reads as "barely food"; the energy density says otherwise.
The saving grace is the same physics in reverse. Because each cracker is about 3 g, a sensible portion is genuinely cheap: 17 kcal buys you the crunch. The crackers aren't the problem. The bag is.
That's why "I only had a few crackers" and "we finished the bag with the menu open" describe two different meals, roughly 70 kcal apart in one direction and 342 in the other, even though both feel like eating nothing.
The salt bill
A full bag carries about 1.15 g of salt, roughly a fifth of the NHS daily maximum of 6 g. Stack that on top of soy sauce and a sauced main and a single takeaway evening can clear most of the day's allowance. If you're watching salt, the crackers are one of the easier things on the table to halve.
How do prawn crackers compare?
| Food | Measure | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Prawn crackers | per 100 g | 570 kcal |
| Doner kebab | per 100 g | 377 kcal |
| Instant noodles | per 100 g, made up | 135 kcal |
| Poppadom | one poppadom | ~65 kcal |
| Prawn crackers | one cracker | 17 kcal |
Per 100 g, prawn crackers top this table comfortably; per piece, they're the lightest thing on it. That's the whole story in two rows. If you want a fried-side ritual with a takeaway, a few prawn crackers beat a poppadom on calories; if you tend to finish whatever bag is open, the sushi end of the takeaway spectrum is kinder territory.
Most popular prawn cracker brands in the United Kingdom
Ranked by how widely each product appears among foods sold in the United Kingdom, from the BodyPal food database of over 3.3 million products. Calories are the figures printed on each label. Supermarket bags sit a touch under the takeaway number — same idea, slightly less oil.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| Snackrite Prawn Crackers (Aldi) | 542 kcal |
| Asda Prawn Crackers | 535 kcal |
| Tesco Prawn Crackers | 520 kcal |
| Sainsbury's Prawn Crackers | 497 kcal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels.
FAQ
How many calories are in one prawn cracker?
About 17 calories. A single takeaway prawn cracker weighs roughly 3 g, and at 570 kcal per 100 g that works out at 17 kcal each. Four crackers with your meal come to about 68 kcal, which is a perfectly reasonable side.
How many calories are in a bag of prawn crackers from the Chinese?
About 342 calories for a typical 60 g takeaway bag. That is close to a light meal's worth of energy on its own, mostly from the frying oil. Half the bag is about 171 kcal, which is the easier habit to build.
How many calories are in 100 g of prawn crackers?
570 kcal per 100 g, per CoFID's takeaway prawn crackers entry. That is one of the highest figures of any takeaway item per 100 g; only the tiny weight of each cracker keeps real-world portions manageable.
Are prawn crackers healthy?
No, and they don't pretend to be: 0.3 g of protein, 0.9 g of fibre, 39 g of fat and 1.92 g of salt per 100 g means they bring crunch and very little else. As an occasional few-cracker side they're harmless; as a nutritional contributor they're empty.
Are prawn crackers gluten free?
The base recipe is tapioca starch and prawn, with no wheat, so many prawn crackers contain no gluten ingredients. Takeaway kitchens and brands vary, though, and shared fryers are common, so anyone avoiding gluten for medical reasons should check with the specific shop or label.
Are prawn crackers actually made of prawn?
Barely. At 0.3 g of protein per 100 g, prawn contributes flavour rather than substance; the cracker is essentially tapioca starch puffed in oil. If prawn were a meaningful ingredient the protein figure would be many times higher.
Are prawn crackers worse than crisps?
Gram for gram, yes: at 570 kcal per 100 g prawn crackers out-rank typical fried potato snacks on energy density, because the puffed starch soaks up so much oil. Per portion it depends entirely on how many you eat, and crackers are lighter per piece.
How many calories are in half a bag of prawn crackers?
About 171 calories for 30 g, half the standard takeaway bag. Splitting the bag across two people, or across two meals, is the single easiest saving on a Chinese takeaway order, cutting 171 kcal without touching the food you actually ordered.
How much salt is in prawn crackers?
1.92 g per 100 g, which means a full 60 g bag carries about 1.15 g, a fifth of the NHS 6 g daily maximum. Combined with soy sauce and a sauced main, the crackers help push a takeaway meal towards a full day's salt.
Similar foods
- Kinder Bueno — 245 kcal per bar
- Freddo — 96 kcal per bar
- Pringles — 159 kcal per 30 g serving
- Twirl — 228 kcal per twin pack
- Lindt Lindor — 78 kcal per truffle
- Kit Kat — 106 kcal per two fingers
Know the bag before you open it
One photo of the spread and BodyPal logs the prawn crackers, the main and the rice with calories and macros for each.
