Slim Jim Original Snack Sticks: 6g Protein, Labelgrade C- (57/100)
C- 57 / 100 — Cheap, shelf-stable smoked meat sticks with a respectable protein density (~19g per 100g) but a long processed-meat ingredient list — mechanically separated chicken, textured soy flour, corn syrup, hydrolyzed soy protein, and sodium nitrite curing. The Labelgrade is dragged down hard by sodium (530mg per serving) and saturated fat (4g), both structural for cured snack sticks. A fun, salty, low-cost protein hit — not a clean-eating snack.
🛒 Buy on Amazon →The short answer
Slim Jim Original Snack Sticks deliver 6 g of protein for 150 calories per 4-stick (32 g) serving (USDA FDC 2758879), alongside 530 mg of sodium and 4 g of saturated fat. The protein density — about 19 g per 100 g — is genuinely respectable; the rest of the panel is exactly what the value end of the meat-stick aisle looks like: a blended beef-pork-and-mechanically-separated-chicken base, textured soy flour as a binder, a little corn syrup, and sodium-nitrite curing. It earns a C- (57 / 100), held down hard by sodium (a flat F) and saturated fat (also an F), both of which are structural for a cured stick rather than fixable defects. Read it for what it is: a cheap, shelf-stable, nostalgic salty protein hit — not a clean-eating snack, and a real notch below a single-source beef stick.
Why the C-
| Dimension | Grade | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protein density | B | 78 / 100 | ~19 g per 100 g — solid for a snack, and the protein is real even though the sources are a beef/pork/chicken blend rather than a single cut |
| Ingredient quality | C+ | 67 / 100 | A long processed-meat panel: beef, pork, mechanically separated chicken, textured soy flour, corn syrup, hydrolyzed soy protein, maltodextrin, sodium nitrite. Functional and cheap, several rungs below a clean beef stick |
| Sugar load | A+ | 96 / 100 | ~1 g total (about 1 g added, from corn syrup and dextrose) — trivial. Sugar is genuinely not the problem here |
| Sodium load | F | 0 / 100 | 530 mg per serving (~1,660 mg per 100 g) — very high, and the single biggest drag on the grade |
| Saturated fat load | F | 39 / 100 | 4 g per serving (~12.5 g per 100 g) — high for a 32 g snack; multiple servings climb fast |
| Fiber | D | 52 / 100 | ~1 g per serving — incidental, mostly an artifact of the soy flour rather than anything nutritional |
The two F’s are the whole story, and they pull in the same direction: salt and saturated fat are both baked into a cured, fatty smoked stick, so there’s no reformulation that rescues this without making it a different product. Sugar scoring an A+ is the honest counterpoint — the common “Slim Jims are full of sugar” assumption is simply wrong, with about a gram per serving. What actually defines this product is the processed-meat panel and the 530 mg of sodium, and the C- reflects exactly that.
What you’re actually paying for
The thing that makes Slim Jim a C- instead of a B is also the thing that makes it a dollar instead of two: the meat blend. A clean stick is one protein source. Slim Jim is three — beef, pork, and mechanically separated chicken, a pressure-recovered paste used as a low-cost protein filler — held together with textured soy flour, a soy binder that does double duty as cheap added protein. That blend is why the price-per-stick lands around $0.30, and it’s also why the ingredient-quality score sits at 67 rather than up in the 90s. Notice the knock-on detail: the ~1 g of fiber on the panel isn’t from anything wholesome, it’s an incidental trace of the soy binder. Slim Jim isn’t hiding any of this — it’s an honest budget product — but the formulation is the reason it grades where it does, and no amount of “19 g protein per 100 g” offsets it.
The protein-per-calorie reality
Six grams of protein for 150 calories is the number that matters most, because it’s where Slim Jim is weakest. That works out to 25 calories per gram of protein — five times the ~5 cal/g you get from plain chicken breast or a whey scoop. The reason is the fat: 11 g of total fat (4 g of it saturated) is most of those 150 calories, not the protein. So as a portable protein it’s fine — it’s pocketable, zero-prep, and at every gas station in the country. As efficient protein it’s poor, and anyone eating these to hit a daily protein target is mostly buying fat and salt with a little protein attached. A single hard-boiled egg makes the gap concrete: roughly the same 6 g of protein, but about 70 calories and ~70 mg of sodium instead of 150 and 530.
How it compares
| Product | Protein per serving | Calories | Sodium | Source | Approx. price/stick |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slim Jim Original (this product) | 6 g (32 g / 4 sticks) | 150 | 530 mg | Beef, pork + mechanically separated chicken, soy | ~$0.30 |
| Chomps Original Beef | 9 g (32 g) | 90 | 290 mg | 100% grass-fed beef, celery-powder cure | ~$2.00 |
| Field Trip Original | 8 g (28 g) | 90 | 240 mg | Beef + pork, no nitrite | ~$1.50 |
| Jack Link’s Premium Cuts Original | 12 g (28 g) | 80 | 540 mg | Conventional beef | ~$1.25 |
The comparison is unkind to Slim Jim on everything except price. Against Chomps you’re paying roughly a sixth of the cost for two-thirds the protein, nearly twice the calories, and almost double the sodium per gram. Field Trip is the cleanest sodium story of the four — 240 mg, no nitrite — at a similar protein level. Jack Link’s is the interesting foil: it’s also a 530–540 mg-sodium, nitrite-cured, MSG-and-maltodextrin product (so not “clean”), but because it’s lean dried beef rather than a fatty blended stick, it delivers twice the protein at half the calories. That contrast is the clearest way to see what Slim Jim’s beef-pork-chicken-and-soy formula actually costs you: the fat. What Slim Jim genuinely wins is cheapness, ubiquity, and the specific salty-smoky flavor people grew up on — and for “salty protein for under a dollar,” it delivers.
Scope
This page scores the snack-size Slim Jim Original (UPC 00026200001883, USDA FDC 2758879), where a serving is 4 small sticks totaling 32 g. The broader Original line — Giant (0.97 oz) and Monster (1.94 oz) single sticks, plus Mild, Tabasco, and Hot AF heat variants — runs on the same recipe, so the macros per gram are essentially identical; the larger sticks just carry proportionally more sodium, fat, and calories per unit. Slim Jim & Cheese and the Pepperoni sticks are adjacent products with different panels. Always check the package in your hand.
Ingredients
Beef, pork, mechanically separated chicken, water, textured soy flour, corn syrup, salt, and less than 2% of: natural flavors, dextrose, paprika and extractives of paprika, hydrolyzed soy protein, maltodextrin, lactic acid starter culture, barley malt extract, citric acid, soy lecithin, sodium nitrite. Contains: soy. (Verbatim from the USDA Branded Foods entry, FDC 2758879.)
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Quick Facts
Per serving · 4 sticks (32 g)
00026200001883See how this fits your day — protein calculator · macro calculator
Full nutrition facts
| Nutrient | Per Serving (4 sticks (32 g)) |
|---|---|
| Calories | 150 |
| Protein | 6g |
| Total Fat | 11g |
| Saturated Fat | 4g |
| Trans Fat | 0g |
| Total Carbohydrates | 6g |
| Dietary Fiber | 0.992g |
| Total Sugars | 0.998g |
| Added Sugars | 0.992g |
| Sodium | 530mg |
| Cholesterol | 34.9mg |
| Calcium | 40mg |
| Iron | 0.8mg |
| Potassium | 150mg |
Scope: This page applies specifically to Slim Jim Original Snack Sticks (0.28 oz (8 g) sticks — serving is 4 sticks (32 g)) · UPC 00026200001883. Other sizes, flavors, or formulations may differ.
How this fits each diet
Each score is computed from the same USDA nutrition + ingredient data, against the published rules of each diet. They tell you "does this food fit this diet" — not whether the diet is right for you.
contains animal-derived ingredients
contains meat, fish, or gelatin
contains a gluten-bearing ingredient
Frequently Asked Questions
How much protein is in Slim Jim Original?
6 g per 4-stick (32 g) serving — about 19 g per 100 g (USDA FDC 2758879). That density is genuinely respectable for a snack, but the absolute number is small and the calories aren't: at 150 calories per serving you're spending 25 calories for every gram of protein, versus roughly 5 for plain chicken breast or whey. The protein is real; it's just not what you're mostly eating here.
Why is the Slim Jim serving 4 sticks when the package sells single sticks?
The 0.28 oz Slim Jim is sold as an individual stick, but the USDA serving is defined as 4 of them (32 g) — so a single stick is only about 1.5 g of protein and ~38 calories. It's easy to read '6 g protein' and assume it's one stick; it isn't. The macros on this page (150 cal, 530 mg sodium) are for the 4-stick serving.
Why does Slim Jim grade a C- when Chomps gets a C+?
It comes down to the meat and the salt, not the protein density. Chomps is one ingredient — grass-fed beef — cured with celery powder, at 290 mg sodium per stick. Slim Jim blends beef, pork, and mechanically separated chicken, binds it with textured soy flour, sweetens it with corn syrup, and cures it with sodium nitrite, at 530 mg sodium. Slim Jim's protein density (19 g/100 g) actually trails Chomps' (28 g/100 g), and the longer processed-meat panel plus the heavier salt load drag the score down to 57.
How much sodium is in a serving, really?
530 mg per 4-stick serving — about 23% of the 2,300 mg daily limit, packed into 32 g. On a per-100g basis that's roughly 1,660 mg, which is why sodium scores a flat 0/100 here. Salt does double duty in a cured stick: flavor and shelf stability. Eat two servings across a day and you're near half your sodium budget from the snack alone.
What are 'mechanically separated chicken' and 'textured soy flour' doing in here?
Both are cost levers. Mechanically separated chicken is a paste recovered by forcing carcasses through a sieve under pressure — a cheap protein filler. Textured soy flour is a soy-protein binder that adds protein and holds the stick together (it's also why Slim Jim shows ~1 g of incidental fiber that pure-beef sticks don't). Neither is unsafe; they're simply lower-tier ingredients, and they're the main reason Slim Jim costs a fraction of a single-source beef stick — and grades below one.
Does Slim Jim have added sugar or MSG-type additives?
Sugar is a non-issue: corn syrup plus dextrose total about 1 g per serving, which is why sugar load scores an A (93/100). The additives that actually define it are on the savory side — hydrolyzed soy protein and maltodextrin (glutamate-family flavor enhancers) and sodium nitrite for curing. So the 'too much sugar' worry is misplaced here; the processed-meat panel and the salt are the real story.
Is Slim Jim Original keto-friendly, and is it 'clean'?
On macros, mostly yes — 6 g total carbs (about 1 g fiber, 1 g sugar) and 11 g fat per serving fit most keto budgets. But keto isn't the same as clean: a whole-foods or paleo eater skips it over the mechanically separated chicken, soy binder, and nitrite curing. For a cheap, pocketable low-carb snack at a gas station it qualifies; for clean keto, Chomps (9 g protein, grass-fed, celery-powder cure) or Field Trip is the move.