The Best Low Sodium Chips for Less Salty Snacking

Low sodium chips are better than you think they are. Same goes for unsalted chips. When I was a child, if I asked for chips to go with my little bologna sandwich, or whatever, and you gave me less salt or no salt chips, I would have called child protective services. Now, I’m a big, wrinkled adult woman and, honestly, I find a lot of salty snacks to be too salty. When I eat potato chips, I actually want to taste potato, not just sizzle my taste buds with excessive amounts of sodium.

Seriously, this list of low sodium and no sodium chips isn’t just for people who need to cut salt out of their diets for health reasons—it’s for anyone who likes snacks that taste good. My colleague Jordan Myrick even suggested that a lot of these would taste better with dips than regular ol’ salted chips. Lowering your risk of cardiovascular ishes is a bonus! From low sodium tortilla chips and low sodium potato chips to chips that are totally unsalted (and surprisingly delicious), these are the best low sodium chips we tasted during a recent taste test.

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best unsalted tortilla chips

Best Unsalted Tortilla Chip

Sprouts Unsalted Organic White Corn Tortilla Chips

If you need a totally unsalted tortilla chip—either because you have high blood pressure or your spouse consistently makes the saltiest salsa you’ve ever tasted and you just don’t know how to tell them—these unsalted tortilla chips from Sprouts are a great option. They’re extremely fresh tasting and have an assertive, pleasant white corn flavor, although they lean a little dry. Like I said, if you’re using these for salsa, they’re perfect. You’ll still get the corn chip flavor and crunch, but you won’t be overwhelmed by all that sodium. You might not eat a ton of these solo, but they’re good with accoutrements. 

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

best lightly salted kettle chips

Best Lightly Salted Kettle

Trader Joe’s Kettle Cooked

Trader Joe’s makes good potato chips. Their non-kettle cooked plain potato chips—aka Ode to the Classic Potato Chip—took the top spot in our ranking of the best plain potato chips. These low sodium potato chips are similarly delicious, but (moderately) better for you. TJ’s Kettle Cooked chips have 50% less fat and sodium than Ode to the Classic, plus they pack a highly satisfying crunch and still have plenty of salt to liven up the potato flavor. They remind me of a cross between Munchos (just the flavor, not the texture) and Cape Cod reduced fat chips, which are among my personal favorite chips. 

Credit: Merc

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

best less salt potato chips

Best Wavy

Great Value Lightly Salted Wavy

In my notes I called this “a perfect wavy chip.” High praise for a lower-sodium chip, right? These lightly salted chips from Walmart are perfect for dip, especially something salty like French onion dip. They’re sturdy, oily, and still taste salty, even though they have 50% less fat than Great Value’s regular wavy potato chips. Kroger makes a similar product we also really liked, but these Great Value chips had a better crunch.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

best lightly salted potato chips

Best Thin

Great Value Lightly Salted

I tasted these back-to-back against Lay’s Lightly Salted (again and again and again—my job is hard) and decided that these Walmart chips have a much more compelling potato flavor. They also have less sodium (65 grams a serving to Lay’s 70 grams). It’s not often that the healthier choice is the tastier choice, but Great Value pulled it off. Pair these with a sandwich on white bread for a meal so nostalgic you’ll almost forget you’re so old you have to worry about your blood pressure now.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

best lightly salted tortilla chips

Best Tortilla Chip

Tostitos Lightly Salted

These have 50 percent less sodium than regular Tostitos tortilla chips, but I think if these were just in a bowl and I couldn’t see the bag from whence they came, I wouldn’t know they were low sodium chips. I swear I actually get more corn flavor from these, too; they have an almost popcorny flavor. They’re also so thin and crispy and delightful to eat. They get more flavorful as you chew, with big, big roasty corn flavor on the back. If low sodium queso exists, buy some to go with these. 

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

9.5/10

Sporks

best unsalted potato chips

Best of the Best

Kettle Unsalted

Truly, I did not expect a totally unsalted chip to be the best low sodium chips we tried, but Kettle is just that good. Besides being unbelievably crunchy and satisfying (like all the Kettle chips you know and love), these have an extremely compelling oily, potato-y flavor. They remind me of Nathan’s french fries, which are consistently underseasoned, but it doesn’t matter because they taste so good (and, yes, you can get them covered in cheese sauce). If any chip doesn’t need salt, it’s Kettle. They’re just so high quality, crunchy, and delicious.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other products we tried: Garden of Eatin’ Blue Chips No Salt Added, Lay’s LIghtly Salted Classic, Boulder Canyon 60% Less Sodium, 

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About the Author

Gwynedd Stuart

Gwynedd Stuart, Sporked’s managing editor, is an L.A.-based writer and editor who spends way, way too much time at the grocery store. She’s never met an Old El Paso taco or mozzarella stick she didn’t like.

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  • I know this is a chip list, however I would like to state my favorite cracker is from Blue Diamond, the Hint of Salt Almond Cracker, if you are looking for more items with less sodium as I do. Great list!

    Reply