Dips have earned a special place in our collective hearts as one of the best party appetizers around. These snacks always come through when you need to entertain a crowd before a proper meal, can appeal to even the pickiest eater, and can sometimes even hold their own as a meal when you are in a rush. While chips and dip have stuck around for generations as one of the ultimate party favors for a reason, not every version of this snack packs in wholesome ingredients.
If you make your own dip at home, you can easily control what ingredients go into the mix, but anyone who has had to quickly throw together a party spread knows that you don’t always have the luxury of time when you need to assemble some snacks at a moment’s notice. In situations like this, knowing which dips at the grocery store use quality ingredients can make a world of difference. Sadly, many of the most popular chip dips cut corners and load their products with tons of fillers, artificial ingredients, and so many more things you may not want going in your body.
By keeping an eye out for the dips that use the worst quality ingredients, you can ensure you serve up healthier snacks and keep your guests coming back for more. If you want to go the extra mile, you can even dish out 7 Easy Dip Recipes Perfect for Weight Loss at your next get-together to really win over your crowd.
A classic queso cheese dip sounds good on paper. After all, this party dip shouldn’t contain too many extra ingredients. Unfortunately, many big brands load up their queso with filler ingredients that bulk out the product and help keep the item shelf stable. Tostitos Salsa Con Queso falls into this common pitfall, as water and corn oil rank as the first and third most prominent ingredients in the dip. Tostitos even adds in the chemical DATEM and artificial colors to give the appearance and texture of cheese, but don’t be fooled—this item packs in loads of very poor ingredients that should make anyone bat an eye.
Skip the queso at the store and opt to create a queso dip at home instead. If you really need to impress, go the extra mile with a Healthy Appetizer-Ready Queso Fundido Recipe that will keep your guests coming back for more.
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Folks fell in love with French onion dip years ago for good reason—this sour cream-based dip tastes great when paired with chips and can feed a crowd at any gathering. But when a prepackaged French onion dip contains more oil than dairy, you can guarantee that the item cuts serious corners when it comes to the quality of its ingredients.
Lay’s French Onion Dip’s most prominent ingredients are corn and sunflower oil, and it doesn’t contain anything even remotely similar to sour cream. This product, which is mostly oil, also gets held together with xanthan gum and DATEM to mimic the consistency of cream.
Walmart’s notorious Great Value brand has garnered a mixed reputation over the years. This brand surprisingly rises above Lay’s take on French onion dip by relying on actual sour cream as its main ingredient, but don’t think this snack is off the hook.
Great Value French onion dip relies on cornstarch, fiber, xanthan gum, locust bean gum, and more low-quality ingredients to build texture and create a denser product. These extra fillers turn a basic sour cream base into something unrecognizably artificial.
Great Value’s ranch dip starts off with a great cream base, but then makes a hard left turn. The second most prominent ingredient in this dip is modified cornstarch, while the item relies on a variety of gums, fiber, and a bunch of other artificial ingredients to make it shelf-stable and dense.
While this particular ranch dip won’t win any awards thanks to its poor quality ingredients, it doesn’t hold a candle next to The Worst Ranch Dressing on Store Shelves.
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At first glance, Tostitos Avocado Salsa has a pleasant green color that makes shoppers think it comes loaded with ripe avocados. After examining the ingredient label, anyone can see that the green color stems from a blend of artificial colors designed to trick anyone who has picked up a jar of this salsa.
Tostitos doesn’t rely only on artificial colors to trick shoppers into thinking they are buying a dip filled with avocados. The third-most prominent ingredient in this salsa is corn oil, which mimics the silky texture you associate with pulverized avocados. With all of these fillers in this dip, you will have a more wholesome time whipping up one of the 20 Best-Ever Guacamole Recipes if an avocado craving hits.
Anyone who picks up a jar of Herdez Queso Blanco can take heart knowing that there is some actual cheese in the dip. Unfortunately, cheese isn’t the primary ingredient either—the product’s primary ingredients are water and soybean oil, meaning that you’re mostly eating filler.
That doesn’t even take into account the significant amount of modified corn starch and maltodextrin this product contains. If you’re looking for a queso dip with quality ingredients, this ain’t it.
A dip filled with spinach immediately sounds like it should be healthy, but Tostitos took a different approach with their creamy spinach dip. Instead of using milk to make the product creamy, Tostitos blends a ton of water and oil together to create the base of this snack. Some hint of dairy gets added via other artificial add-ins, like whey protein concentrate, torula yeast extract, and MSG, making this dip that much more unsavory.
Overall, there are few natural ingredients in this dip beyond spinach. Avoid this one and opt for the best-tasting spinach dip instead.
Great Value’s Queso Blanco Cheese Dip won’t impress those who want a queso made with high-quality ingredients. To their credit, this version does use real cheese, but also relies on artificial coloring to look appetizing and the fourth most prominent ingredient in the queso is soybean oil, to add body.
Factor in a bunch of other highly-processed add-ins like MSG, xanthan gum, and DATEM, and you end up with a product that relies on low-quality ingredients to build its texture and mouthfeel.
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