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Arnott’s Reduced Sugar Shortbread Cream | Chewsday Review

Arnott’s have been busy with some new products hitting the market recently. One of which is Reduced Sugar Shortbread Cream. Having 50% less sugar than regular Shortbread Cream biscuits must mean these are 50% better for you, right? Read this week’s review to find out.

Ingredients

Wheat Flour, Vegetable Oil (Antioxidant (E307b From Soy)), Sugar, Sweeteners (Maltitol, Monk Fruit Extract), Vegetable Fibre, Salt, Eggs, Wheat Starch, Baking Powder, Emulsifier (Soy Lecithin), Flavour.
The ingredients are very similar to the regular version. The only difference is that this contains sweeteners and has some added vegetable fibre. I suspect the vegetable fibre has been added to help the texture rather than for the benefits of fibre.
Allergens: Egg, Gluten, Soy, Wheat
May contain: Milk, Peanuts, Sesame, Tree Nuts

Positives

With the addition of sweeteners (maltitol and monk fruit extract) this product is much lower in sugar at 13.3g per 100g compared to original Shortbread Creams which have 28.6g per 100g. Keep in mind that consistent exposure to super sweet flavours (even if this is from natural sweeteners) isn’t ideal for little ones, and certain sweeteners can also cause an upset tummy for some people.
This creeps in just below the sodium recommendation (400mg per 100g) at 381mg per 100g, and is on par with the original Shortbread Cream. But really a sweet biscuit has no business having this much salt.

Negatives

The biscuits contain over 4x the recommended amount of saturated fat, with 14.4g per 100g. I suspect this is higher than original Shortbread Creams (13.3g per 100g) because more fat is needed to make up for reducing the sugar.
These sweeteners must be more expensive than sugar, because these biscuits are an extra $1.20 per packet compared to the original version.
I’m surprised fibre was even included on the nutrition information panel, but as expected these are low (only 0.6g per serve). The addition of vegetable fibre means these do have double the amount of fibre in original Shortbread Cream biscuits, but it’s definitely not enough to get excited about.

Marketing

“50% less sugar than standard Arnott’s Shortbread Cream.” True, but the way it’s written on the packet reminds me of the sped up “terms and conditions apply…” spiel at the end of ads.
“1.0 Health Star Rating”. These have an extra 0.5 Health Star Rating compared to original Shortbread Creams, but I don’t think this marketing technique is really selling these biscuits as much as Arnott’s hoped it would.
I find it funny that Arnott’s slogan is “there is no substitute for quality” but it seems there is a need to substitute sugar. If offering sweet biscuits makes you feel uncomfortable or you’d like to learn more about why we shouldn’t fear or restrict sugar, join Toddler Mealtimes or Family Mealtimes for more support.

Alternatives