Nagaraya

Nagaraya is THE brand of cracker nuts in the Philippines.

Japanese katakana spelling: ナガラヤ

What Are Cracker Nuts?

They are simply peanuts with a crunchy flavored-coating shell. Canadians call them “chip nuts.” The shell is infused with a flavor. The original Nagaraya flavor is butter. In recent years, other flavors have come out, such as garlic, hot & spicy, barbecue, and Filipino adobo.

History: Origins of Cracker Nuts

Believe it or not, these goodies originated in the country of Mexico, where in the 1940s a Japanese immigrant by the name of Yoshigei Nakatani Moriguchi invented “Japanese peanuts” (widely known in the Spanish-speaking world as cacahuates japoneses or maní japonés). Note that there were no such “Japanese peanuts” in Japan at the time. The Mexican version’s recipe for the extra-crunchy shell has ingredients such as wheat flour, soy sauce, water, standard sugar, MSG, and citric acid.

Ingredients of the original Nagaraya: Peanuts, wheat flour, sugar, food starch-modified, BUTTER, and iodized salt.

Barbecue flavor’s ingredients: Peanuts, wheat flour, sugar, food starch-modified, flavoring, iodized salt, vegetable oil (coconut or corn oil), and flavor enhancer (monosodium glutamate, also known as MSG).

Zero transfat. Zero cholesterol.

In March 2014, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Philippines announced that a batch of Nagaraya Cracker Nut Original Butter Flavor (160mg) had been voluntarily recalled due to excess amounts of aflatoxin.

Affected by the recall were Nagaraya products under Lot 14017 which had an expiration date of January 24, 2015.

The manufacturer is Food Industries Inc., located at 7582 Dela Rosa Street in Makati City.

Other brands of cracker nuts in the Philippines: Caramba, Boy Bawang, Hi-Ho Crunchy BBQ