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Aldi Caramel Skadoos | Chewsday Review

A Twix, but from Aldi and marketed to kids. Do Skadoos seem doo good doo be true? Let's see...

Ingredients

Flour, sugar, glucose fructose syrup, vegetable fats and oils (including palm oil, shea nut butter), cocoa mass, whey powder, milk powder, cocoa butter, humectant (422), emulsifier (322), raising agents (336, 500, 503), invert sugar, salt, natural flavour, malted barley extract, thickener (407).
These contain three different types of sugar: sugar, glucose fructose syrup and invert sugar.
Allergens: Wheat, gluten, milk, soy.
May contain: egg, peanut, almond, hazelnut, macadamia

Positives

Negatives

At 9.6g per 100g, saturated fat content is more than three times our guideline. This is from the vegetable fats and oils, cocoa mass and cocoa butter.
Skadoos are high in added sugar (41.4g per 100g), almost three times higher than our target of 15g per 100g. I’m not surprised by this, given that sugar is listed second in the ingredient list and they contain three different types of sugar.
The fibre content of these biscuits is low – so much so that it’s not listed on the nutrition information panel.
At $2.99 for a box of 6, these work out to be $0.50 for each 25g biscuit, or $20 per kg. Given that you can also get a box of Carman’s Muesli Bars for $20 per kg (which are 45g bars and meet our criteria for fibre, saturated fat and sugar), Skadoos aren’t actually great value for money.

Marketing

“No artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.” True, but this doesn’t make these biscuits more nutritious.
“Rainforest Alliance”: The cocoa in the biscuits is from a sustainable source. This is great, but doesn’t affect the product’s nutrition.
“0.5 Health Star Rating”: This gives us an indication right away that these are not going to be the most nutritious choice.

Alternatives

Skadoos are a chocolate and caramel biscuit, very similar to a Twix. I wouldn’t recommend these as a regular lunchbox snack due to their high sugar, high saturated fat and low fibre content.
If you’re after a sweet snack for lunchboxes, I’m a big fan of Carman’s Muesli Bars, like these Brownie Aussie Oat Bars. These Aldi Chewy Choc Chip Muesli Bars are also a reasonable penny pinching option.
But remember that I’ll never tell you not to buy Skadoos (or anything else), because I believe that there’s room for all foods in a healthy diet. If you or your kiddos love this product, that’s absolutely fine. My job is to cut through the marketing and labelling, to help you decide what you want to buy. If you need more guidance with how to offer non-core or “junk” foods to your child, check out my guides in Toddler and Family Mealtimes.