Snack-lover is left heartbroken after opening a bag of Smith's chips to find just a bag filled with AIR

• TikTok shows man opening his Smith's chip packet containing nothing but air
• Social media users accused the man of staging the video by using editing tricks
• Chip packets don't contain air and are filled with nitrogen gas to keep flavour 

A man faced every crisp fan's nightmare when he opened a packet of chips to reveal it was just a bag filled with air. 

Video uploaded to TikTok on Sunday shows the disappointed customer open a bag of Smith's salt and vinegar chips to find the packet completely empty. 

'Paid air,' the caption read as he tagged Woolworths and added 'Smiths I want a refund'.

It's a familiar tale for crisp fans everywhere: you open up a packet only for half of it to be empty, but in this case there was not a chip in sight.

However eagle-eyed viewers noticed the TikTok may have just been a case of a nifty editing trick, with one social media user pointing out: 'The video cuts when the bag of chips goes off screen'.

'Why are you recording yourself opening one in the first place?' asked one person.

'See how he opened the packet off camera, he probably had another chip packet open and empty then pretended it was the packet that wasn't opened yet,' suggested another. 

But the original author defended himself claiming he only had one hand available to open the packet.

'I literally go to smash the bag with my hand in the video, you can see me hesitate,' he says. 

PepsiCo the company who owns Smith's chips, told Daily Mail Australia that sometimes empty bags can be missed during production. 

'It’s rare but sometimes the machines in our factory can miss filling a bag – there’s a sensor that would normally remove it but if there’s a filled bag on top of it, it can get missed,' it said. 

'We only want our consumers to receive full bags of chips so if this ever happens please contact us at smiths.com.au and we’ll reimburse you.'

According to a recent study by chip connoisseur's Kitchen Cabinet Kings, the air found inside a pack of crisps is in fact nitrogen.

The process is called 'slack fill' which preserves shelf life and flavour where as oxygen would cause chips to go stale and spoil. 

The harmless gas is also used to protect the product from being damaged during transit with manufacturers intentionally inflating the package to add extra cushioning.