Caramel is made by heating sugar until it melts and turns from golden to deep brown. As the sugar breaks down it forms hundreds of new aroma compounds, which give caramel its toasty, slightly bittersweet taste. Caramel for snacks is often cooked with milk, butter or cream, which makes it richer and softer in flavour, closer to toffee or butterscotch.
In snacks, caramel is used as a coating on popcorn and nuts, as a flavour for crisps and biscuits, or as a filling. It should not be confused with caramel colour (INS 150a to 150d), a colouring additive made by heating sugars, sometimes with other reactants, and used for colour rather than taste.
On SeekSnack, caramel is the first ingredient of Party Crispy Pie - Butter Caramel, a sweet corn snack.
