High Protein Snacks UK: 20 Supermarket Picks Ranked

By Alex Lawrence, qualified nutritionist · Fact-checked against sources on 30 October 2026 · Updated 30 October 2026

The best high-protein snacks give you lots of protein for few calories. Tinned tuna, biltong, sliced chicken, fat-free cottage cheese, skyr and Greek yoghurt all give 16–24 g of protein per 100 kcal, while protein bars give about 10 g and peanuts about 4 g.

We checked the labels of 17 UK supermarket and brand products on 30 October 2026 and added three everyday foods from the UK government’s food composition data. Everything is ranked by protein per 100 kcal, the simplest way to compare snacks of different sizes.

What makes a snack “high protein”?

On a UK label, “high protein” means at least 20% of the food’s calories come from protein. That’s the legal condition for the claim in the nutrition and health claims regulation (a “source of protein” claim needs 12%).

Protein provides 4 kcal per gram, so 20% of calories works out at 5 g of protein per 100 kcal. That’s the minimum. Many products that say “high protein” on the front only just clear it, while some ordinary foods, like tinned tuna, carry four times as much.

Protein per 100 kcal: the number to compare

Protein per 100 kcal tells you how much protein you get for a fixed amount of calories, whatever the pack size. Work it out from the “per 100 g” column on any label:

Protein per 100 kcal = protein per 100 g ÷ kcal per 100 g × 100

For example, Arla Skyr Natural has 10 g of protein and 61 kcal per 100 g: 10 ÷ 61 × 100 = 16.4 g of protein per 100 kcal. A M&S protein bar has 38.1 g of protein and 374 kcal per 100 g, so it gives 10.2 g per 100 kcal. Gram for gram the bar has far more protein, but calorie for calorie the skyr wins.

As a rough guide:

15 g or more per 100 kcal: excellent, mostly lean meat, fish and strained dairy.
10–15 g: good, including most protein yoghurts, puddings and bars.
Under 10 g: fine food, but the protein comes with a lot of other calories.

20 high-protein snacks from UK supermarkets

Here are the 20, ranked from most to least protein per 100 kcal.

Snack (where we checked the label)	Serving	kcal	Protein	Protein per 100 kcal
John West Tuna Chunks in Spring Water, drained (Morrisons)	1 can (102 g drained)	108	25.5 g	23.6 g
Ember Original Biltong (Morrisons)	45 g pack	110	23 g	21.2 g
M&S Roast Chicken Slices	100 g*	127	26.7 g	21.0 g
Graham’s Zero Fat Cottage Cheese (Morrisons)	100 g*	62	12 g	19.4 g
Arla Skyr Natural (Arla)	150 g*	92	15 g	16.4 g
M&S Authentic Greek Yogurt 0% Fat	200 g pot	124	20 g	16.1 g
Arla Protein Strawberry Yogurt (Arla)	200 g pot	124	20 g	16.1 g
M&S Strawberry High Protein Yogurt	200 g pot	152	22 g	14.5 g
Jack Link’s Original Beef Jerky (Morrisons)	25 g	63	8.8 g	13.8 g
Arla Protein Salted Caramel Pudding (Arla)	200 g pot	146	20 g	13.7 g
Ehrmann High Protein Chocolate Mousse (Morrisons)	200 g pot	152	20 g	13.2 g
Mini Babybel Light (Morrisons)	1 cheese (20 g)	42	5 g	12.0 g
M&S 0% Fat Greek Style Live Yogurt	150 g pot	96	10.5 g	10.9 g
M&S Edamame Beans	160 g pack	189	19.7 g	10.4 g
M&S Salted Caramel Protein Bar	55 g bar	206	21 g	10.2 g
Barebells Salty Peanut Protein Bar (Morrisons)	55 g bar	200	20 g	9.9 g
Eggs, boiled (CoFID)	100 g*	143	14.1 g	9.9 g
Cottage cheese, plain (CoFID)	100 g*	103	9.4 g	9.1 g
M&S High Protein It’s Cheese Clouds and Marmite	20 g bag	112	6.9 g	6.2 g
Peanuts, roasted and salted (CoFID)	30 g*	181	7.4 g	4.1 g

How to read the table:

Protein per 100 kcal comes from each label’s per-100 g values. Where the label gives a per-pack or per-portion figure, we used it; otherwise we worked the serving out from the per-100 g values.
* marks a serving size we picked (the pack has no single serving, or is a multi-portion tub).
Eggs, plain cottage cheese and peanuts are averages from McCance and Widdowson’s Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset, the UK government’s food composition data, not a specific brand.
The shop named is where we checked the label, not the only place it’s sold.
Recipes and labels change. Always check the pack before you rely on a number.

The best picks for different situations

The right snack depends on where you are and what you fancy.

From the fridge: fat-free cottage cheese, skyr and strained Greek yoghurt are easy to bulk out with fruit. Note the difference between Greek and Greek-style: M&S’s strained Authentic Greek 0% has 10 g of protein per 100 g, while its 0% Greek Style yoghurt has 7 g (see the table links).

On the go: biltong and jerky are light and easy to carry. Watch the salt: a 45 g pack of Ember biltong has 2.4 g of salt and a 25 g portion of Jack Link’s jerky has 1.3 g, against the NHS limit of 6 g a day for adults.

Sweet tooth: protein yoghurts and puddings (Arla, Ehrmann, M&S) give about 20 g of protein for under 160 kcal a pot. Protein bars are handy but sit lower, at about 10 g per 100 kcal, because of the chocolate and fat.

Plant-based: edamame beans give about 20 g of protein in a 160 g pack.

Cheese and nuts: cheese snacks and peanuts are fine foods, but most of their calories come from fat, so they’re a poor way to add protein if you’re watching calories. The M&S Cheese Clouds carry a “high protein” claim and clear the legal bar, yet give 6.2 g per 100 kcal, about a quarter of tinned tuna.

How much protein do you need?

Most adults need about 0.75 g of protein per kg of body weight a day. That’s the UK Reference Nutrient Intake, which the British Nutrition Foundation puts at about 56 g a day for men and 45 g for women.

If you lift weights to build muscle, you need more. A meta-analysis of 49 studies found muscle gains from resistance training levelled off at about 1.6 g per kg a day. That’s 128 g for an 80 kg (176 lb) person. Our protein calculator gives your target by goal, and the macro calculator fits it into your calories.

The British Nutrition Foundation also points out that most people don’t need protein supplements or special high-protein products. Ordinary foods like tuna, chicken, eggs, yoghurt and beans do the job; branded protein products are a convenience, not a requirement.

When do high-protein snacks help?

High-protein snacks help most when your meals alone don’t reach your protein target, or when you’re in a calorie deficit and want food that fills you up for fewer calories.

Filling a gap. A review of protein research by Schoenfeld and Aragon (2018) suggests about 0.4 g per kg per meal across at least four meals for people building muscle. If you eat three meals a day, a high-protein snack can be the fourth.
Dieting. A review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Leidy et al., 2015) found higher-protein, reduced-calorie diets led to more fat loss and better preservation of lean mass in shorter, tightly controlled studies, and that protein-rich meals made people feel a little fuller. Longer-term results were more mixed. Our calorie deficit guide and calorie deficit calculator explain how to set your calories.
Around training. A pot of skyr or a protein yoghurt after a session is an easy way to get 15–20 g of protein in.

If you’re cutting calories, don’t go below about 1,200 kcal a day (women) or 1,500 kcal a day (men) without medical supervision. If you’re worried about your eating, Beat, the UK eating disorder charity, can help: call 0808 801 0677 or visit beateatingdisorders.org.uk.

Check the label before you buy

Labels change, so the quickest check is the per-100 g column: divide protein by kcal and multiply by 100. Anything at 10 or above is a good protein snack; under 5, the “high protein” claim isn’t allowed.

The Get Gains app has a barcode scanner on the free plan, so you can scan a UK product in the shop, see its calories and protein, and log it straight to your day.

How we wrote this: drafted with AI assistance, then fact-checked against the sources below and edited by Alex Lawrence. Read our editorial policy.