For this low fat v original taste test, we put full fat houmous up against a lower-fat version. Which came out on top?
Houmous: Waitrose Essential houmous v Waitrose Essential Reduced Fat houmous
The difference: expect just over 26% fat (of which 3.1% are saturates) in normal houmous, and 16% fat (of which 2% are saturates) in its reduced fat counterpart. As for ingredients, the regular houmous contains nothing but natural ingredients, whereas the reduced fat version has added ‘maize maltodextrin’ and ‘modified maize starch’.
The test: six tasters tested the two varieties. They were not told beforehand what the difference between the varieties was, so it was a completely blind test.
The result: reduced fat wins. What a surprise! Only one person favoured the normal houmous for its ‘traces of lemon’, and compliments for the reduced fat version included: ‘nicer texture’, ‘more body’, ‘intense in flavour’, ‘easier to distinguish the chickpeas’ and ‘better aftertaste’.
Conclusion: a tricky one, because our team preferred the low fat version and, of course, it has less reduced fat in. But we do prefer a natural dip, and would therefore feel more comfortable with a scoop of original houmous.
See all our low fat v original taste tests
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