Burger Rings are a type of corn-based, burger-flavoured Australian

snack food A snack is a small portion of food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home. Traditionally, snack ...

distributed by

The Smith's Snackfood Company The Smith's Snackfood Company is a British-Australian snack food company owned by American multinational corporation PepsiCo. It is best known for its brand of potato crisps. The company was founded by Frank Smith and Jim Viney in the United Kin ...

, which, in turn is owned by

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

History

Burger Rings were introduced in 1974. During the late 1990s the Burger Rings brand went through a brand overhaul, coinciding with the acquisition of The Smith's Snackfood Company by Lays. During the brand overhaul the appearance of the packet was changed to a more modernised look with bolder and sharper letters in the logo, adopting its past logo.

Ingredients

Burger Rings are made out of a combination of

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

and

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

. A Smith's Chips representative confirmed Burger Rings are suitable for

vegans Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet (nutrition), diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is kn ...

. The ingredients for Burger Rings are as follows:

cereal A cereal is any Poaceae, grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, Cereal germ, germ, and bran. Cereal Grain, grain crops are grown in greater quantit ...

s (

vegetable oil Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of fruits. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed oils, or fat ...

maltodextrin Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide that is used as a food ingredient. It is produced from vegetable starch by partial hydrolysis and is usually found as a white hygroscopic spray-dried powder. Maltodextrin is easily digestible, being absorbed as r ...

rice bran Bran, also known as miller's bran, is the hard outer layers of cereal grain. It consists of the combined aleurone and pericarp. Corn (maize) bran also includes the pedicel (tip cap). Along with germ, it is an integral part of whole grains, a ...

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

, hydrolysed vegetable protein (

soy The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu and ...

flavour enhancer A flavoring (or flavouring), also known as flavor (or flavour) or flavorant, is a food additive used to improve the taste or smell of food. It changes the perceptual impression of food as determined primarily by the chemoreceptors of the gustat ...

(621), food acids (

sodium diacetate Sodium diacetate is a compound with formula . It is a salt of acetic acid. It is a colorless solid that is used in seasonings and as an antimicrobial agent. Preparation and structure The salt forms upon half- neutralization of acetic acid foll ...

citric acid Citric acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula HOC(CO2H)(CH2CO2H)2. It is a colorless weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in t ...

), flavour,

mineral salt Halite (), commonly known as rock salt, is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride ( Na Cl). Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pi ...

(

potassium chloride Potassium chloride (KCl, or potassium salt) is a metal halide salt composed of potassium and chlorine. It is odorless and has a white or colorless vitreous crystal appearance. The solid dissolves readily in water, and its solutions have a salt ...

), yeast extracts,

onion powder Onion powder is dehydrated, ground onion that is commonly used as a seasoning. It is a common ingredient in seasoned salt and spice mixes, such as beau monde seasoning. Some varieties are prepared using toasted onion. White, yellow and red onions ...

, tomato powder. It is also stated on the packaging "Contains Gluten", "Contains Milk or Milk Products", "Contains Soy Bean or Soy Bean Products" in contrast with majority of other packaging that states "may contain traces of..." which is confusing for vegans as it implies one or more of the ingredients are derived from Milk.

Flavours

A Bacon Flavour variant was offered in Australia, briefly.

Marketing

A memorable ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

''-themed advertisement for the product was aired on Australian television in the early 1980s. It featured a faux Luke Skywalker character on Tatooine. After exiting his Landspeeder, he is confronted by a large group of Jawas who ask for his Burger Rings. He begrudgingly shares them only to be left with a single Burger Ring. A Jawa swiftly grabs that last one and the ad ends. A radio ad campaign in the 1980s joked that Burger Rings were possibly made of rubber tyres concluding with the slogan "they taste good but!". A 1989 ad aired on Australian television depicting a school chemistry experiment resulting in the creation of a single Burger Ring snack. The student who performed the experiment consumes the snack and seems to gain superpowers, developing jagged hair and a crazed look as the now-

fluorescent Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, tha ...

Burger Ring bounces inside the boy's ribcage, made visible by a

radiographic Radiography is an imaging technique using X-rays, gamma rays, or similar ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation to view the internal form of an object. Applications of radiography include medical radiography ("diagnostic" and "therapeut ...

effect akin to X-ray imaging. This later turns out to be a daydream of the boy who has fallen asleep in a chemistry class, and continues to mix his chemicals in a sleepy haze. A 1992 ad featured a man at a bus stop who attempts to steal one of the snacks from another man's packet, only having it growl like a dog and attack his arm, making him run away past a sign that says "WARNING - BURGER RINGS BITE". The owner then shares the packet with a woman on his other side.

In popular culture

In 2014, a contestant on Australian quiz show ''

Millionaire Hot Seat ''Millionaire Hot Seat'', also known as ''Hot Seat'', is an Australian television quiz show. The show is a spin-off of ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' and began airing on the Nine Network on 20 April 2009. As with the original Australian ver ...

'' failed to identify "Burger ring" as the "gag answer" to the $100 question, "Which of these is not a piece of jewellery commonly worn to symbolise a relationship between two people?".Byrne, Patrick (17 December 2014
Ballarat woman Whitney Beseler's Burger Ring blooper on Millionaire Hot Seat
'' The Courier''. Retrieved 22 September 2020. The contestant instead incorrectly locked in " Anniversary ring". The contestant was invited back onto the set at the end of the program where host

Eddie McGuire Edward Joseph McGuire AM (born 29 October 1964) is an Australian television presenter, journalist and Australian Football League commentator. He is also an occasional ''Herald Sun'' newspaper columnist. He hosts Channel Nine’s Millionaire ...

presented her with a packet of Burger Rings as a

consolation prize A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

.Molloy, Shannon (17 December 2014
Millionaire Hot Seat contestant hilariously bombs out on the very first basic question
''

news.com.au news.com.au is an Australian website owned by News Corp Australia. It had 9.6 million unique readers in April 2019 and covers national and international news, lifestyle, travel, entertainment, technology, finance, and sport. Staff The organiza ...

''. Retrieved 22 September 2020.

International variants

Burger Rings are available in New Zealand under the same name, except distributed by Bluebird Foods. The New Zealand variant has a different packaging design and a similar slogan: "Full on burger flavour". They are available in 30g and 120g bags, and in 108g 6-pack multipacks.

References

External links

Official website (Australia)Bluebird Foods Limited
{{PepsiCo Australian snack foods The Smith's Snackfood Company brands Products introduced in 1974