Meat crisps to tackle obesity?

One of Britain's biggest food companies have applied for a patent to make slimming crisps - made out of meat.

Thin, crunchy, high in protein and low in fat, the invention is being developed in a laboratory in North Yorkshire as a healthy alternative to a bag of fatty potato crisps.

The plans have been revealed in documents filed at the Intellectual Property Office, formerly known as the Patent Office, by the Cranswick food company, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Bernard Hoggarth, chief executive of Cranswick, said: "Instead of snacking on a beef-flavoured crisp, which is deep-fried in oil, I'd rather have a piece of actual beef.

"Yes, it's a bit blue-sky thinking but I think it could take off - after all, people are happy to snack on Parma ham."

Mr Hoggarth said packaging would be key to ensuring the product had a long shelf life and persuading consumers to eat crispy slices of pulverised meat.

"We envisage selling these in Pringle-style tubes, with the crisps stacked up," he said.

The documents suggest the beef crisp would have 399 calories per 100g, substantially lower than the 540 calories per 100g for most potato crisps.

They would also have 8.1g of fat, compared with about 18g in potato crisps. The salt content would also be lower than standard crisps.

Mr Hoggarth said if the final testing in the companies laboratories was successful, the crisps were likely to hit the shops at the end of this year or early next year