Twisties
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Twisties is a snack food product available in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and in Fiji. The brand name is owned by The Smith's Snackfood Company. While originally an Australian owned company, Smith's was acquired in August 1998, by Frito-Lay the second largest producer of salt snack foods in Australia, which in turn is owned by PepsiCo.
Twisties are one of the most popular snack foods in Australia. Smith's claims it to be the "number one extruded snack brand"[4].
They are made primarily of corn and rice, fried in vegetable oil and then coloured and flavoured. The corn and rice batter is extruded into the hot oil, resulting in a relatively dense product compared to most similar snack foods, such as Cheetos and Burger Rings, and a distinctive mouth texture.
Twisties were originally available only in cheese flavour, but chicken flavour was introduced and became a standard part of the product line. There have also been flavours in various countries as diverse Toffee, Tomato and Salmon Teriyaki.
Twisties have been advertised for several years with the well-known slogan "Life's pretty straight without... Twisties". Typical television advertisements play on the slogan by showing people in mundane situations being transported to surreal and exciting environments when they eat Twisties.
They are also sold on the italian market with the name Fonzies.
[edit] Trivia
- Nikki Webster, an Australian pop star and glamour model appeared in her first commercial at the age of six, a twisties commercial.
- The 1996 Saatchi & Saatchi Twisties advertising campaign, "Life's pretty straight without Melrose", won awards from the Advertising Federation of Australia. The campaign centred around linking Twisties to, what was then, the hottest programme on television - Melrose Place.[1]
- In January 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, refused import rights for Twisties because of mislabelling.[2] The FDA again denied import rights in May 2006, this time sighting unsafe colourings.[3]
- A similar snack exists in France, called Croustilles. They are available in such diverse flavours as Peanut, Salsa and traditional cheese. Also in Italy, a similar snack is known as "Fonzies".
