How to choose dips

Dips are more than just a snack food. They can be used as a spread, are great in salads, and can be served with vegetables.

What’s available

The variety of dips available is vast, from the old favourites such as creamy onion, to the hummus dips, and yoghurt or feta-based dips.

Legumes and vegetables

Dips are a great way to introduce legumes and increase vegetables in your diet, in turn adding fibre. Not all products state the fibre content, so we like those that do. The hummus-based dips are traditionally made from chickpeas, tahini (sesame seed paste), garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. There are many variations of traditional hummus, often with added vegetables such as beetroot, kumara, pumpkin, carrot and eggplant, as well as seeds and nuts. There is also a range of vegetable-based dips. We recommend choosing a plant-based dip with 50 per cent or more legumes and/or vegetables.

Saturated fat

While most of the vegetable and legume-based dips will be low in saturated fat, some of the dairy-based dips can be higher. Look for a lower fat option or go for a yoghurt-based dip such as The Good Taste Co Cucumber & Mint Yoghurt dip with just 2.5g saturated fat per 100g. We recommend choosing a dip with 3g or less saturated fat per 100g.

Sodium

Remembering that most of our sodium intake is from processed foods, it’s important to watch the sodium content when choosing a dip. We recommend choosing a dip with 500mg or less sodium per 100g, but 400mg or less sodium per 100g is even better.

Energy

The energy content of dips we looked at ranged from a high of 2450kJ per 100g (Turkish Kitchen Fresh Spinach & Basil) to 355kJ per 100g (Don Pepino Eggplant Ikra Russian style). If you’re watching your weight, then choose a low-kJ dip.

Practise safe dipping

The ‘use-by’ and ‘best-before’ dates are an important aspect of food safety. Keep dips chilled, check the label and follow the advice. Eat foods within a couple of days of opening.

Notes

Pregnant women are advised to avoid hummus (store-bought and homemade) and other dips containing tahini as they have been linked to both salmonella and listeria.

The kilojoules can add up depending what you have with your dip:

• 6 rice crackers add around 310kJ
• 6 vegetable sticks (celery and red capsicum) add 20kJ-70kJ

Make your own dip! Check out some healthy dip recipes here.

How to choose

Use these criteria to compare dips: