A real forgotten treat. I can taste these now, such a shame they disappeared.
Summary
In 1981 Philip Lewis ( a pub landlord) of Hedgehog Foods Ltd thought it may be amusing to produce Hedgehog flavoured crisps.
The crisps were sold in beige coloured packets. On the front was a picture of a cartoon hedgehog licking it’s lips, on the reverse side the packet read “savour the flavour of traditional country fare cooked the old fashioned way without harming a single spike of a real hedgehog”
Whilst the flavour might have been produced as a joke, the crisps caught on and became a huge success.
Hedgehog Crisps were flavoured with pork fat and not hedgehogs. However, despite reassurances from Hedgehog Foods, in 1982 the company landed themselves in court.
The Office Of Fair Trading took Hedgehog foods to court, but not for using Hedgehogs, for false advertising.
The claim was made that by using pork fat to flavour the crisps and advertising them as Hedgehog flavour that the company were in fact misleading the public.
The story doesn’t end there. To reach a final settlement, Lewis went out and interviewed some gypsies who actually ate baked hedgehogs to ascertain the flavour of Hedgehogs.
As a result a flavourings firm were commissioned to replicate the flavour as accurately as was possible.
Having done this Lewis changed the name of the crisps from Hedgehog flavoured to Hedgehog flavour. This satisfied all interests and brought the case to a close, Hedgehog Crisps returned to shelves as ‘Hedgehog Flavour Crisps’ on 12th January 1984.
On the plus side the crisps did raise money for Hedgehogs. On the back of every packet was a token. You were encouraged to save the tokens and when you had twenty you sent them with a Stamped Addressed Envelope to receive a hedgehog sticker and a donation was made in the sender’s name to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.
Where Did They Go?
Well the parent company, Hedgehog Foods, a company set up by Lewis on an industrial estate in Welshpool went on to be more than just Hedgehog Crisps, sadly we were unable to find out what, if anyone can fill us in please get in touch at email wheredidtheygo@icloud.com
The company went on to develop other crisp flavours and a number of varieties of spread. By 1991 Hedgehog Foods had sales of $3.6 million and was a major donor to the hedgehog conservation charity Tiggywinkles.
The company was purchased by crisp manufacturer Bensons (later known as Snackhouse. For a time Hedgehog Flavoured Crisps were distributed in Canada; plans were in place for the product to be sold in the United States. Sadly despite this you can no longer buy Hedgehog Crisps.
Hedgehog Crisps were discontinued in 1994. Sadly the genius behind the flavour, Phillip, Lewis died in 2017 at the age of 74