Arnott’s Snack Right Oaty Bites Fruit & Oat | Chewsday Review

This week I am reviewing Arnott’s Snack Right Oaty Bites Fruit and Oat. They sound like a great snack with oats and fruit- but are they as nutritious as they claim to be, or just another sweet biscuit in disguise?

Ingredients

Wheat Flour, Vegetable Oil (Antioxidant (E307b From Soy)), Sugar, Dried Fruit (7%) (Currants, Sultanas), Vegetable Fibre, Wholegrain Oats (5.5%), Wheat Flakes, Golden Syrup, Sweetener (Maltitol), Emulsifier (Soy Lecithin), Spices (Cassia, Cinnamon, Nutmeg), Starch (Wheat), Salt, Natural Flavour.
Sugar is listed as the third ingredient, along with dried fruit, golden syrup and Maltitol for sweetness.
The amounts of the featured ingredients in this product are tiny, only 7% dried fruit and 5.5% oats.
Allergens: Gluten, Soy, Wheat.
May contain: Egg, Milk, Tree Nuts, Peanuts, Sesame, Lupin.

Positives

Negatives

At 16.6g per 100g, the sugar content of Snack Right Oaty Bites is just above guidelines. This is mostly added sugar, given that sugar is listed in the ingredient list before fruit and that currants and sultanas only make up 7% of the product. Having said that, the sugar content is on the lower end compared to other sweet biscuits, like Arnott’s Bluey Honey Oat Biscuits (20.7g sugar per 100g) and Mother Earth’s Oaty Slices (28g sugar per 100g).
Despite the added vegetable fibre, at 2g per serve, fibre content falls short of my target (3g per serve). When compared to other products, Oaty Bites (8.2g fibre per 100g) have a similar fibre content to Little Bellies Organic Apricot, Date & Oat Bars (8.7g per 100g) and Mother Earth Golden Oats Baked Oaty Slices (7.7g per 100g) . So overall, the fibre content is decent for the small serving size (25g).
Both total fat (19.6g per 100g) and saturated fat (4.9g per 100g) are above guidelines, which is mainly from the vegetable oil.

Marketing

“Delicious fruit and crunchy wholegrain oats.” The marketing of these biscuits really focuses on oats to promote them as a “healthy” option, but in reality the combined amount of oats and fruit makes up only one eighth of the product.
“Less than 5g of sugar per serve”. This is correct, but keep in mind that smaller serving sizes can be used to make a product seem lower in sugar.
Don’t be deceived by the green packaging – just because it’s green doesn’t automatically mean it’s healthy.

Alternatives

If you got this far, you’re probably as sick of the word ‘oaty’ as I am (is it even a word?!)
These biscuits don’t quite deserve the health halo they’re marketed with. I wouldn’t add these Snack Right Oaty Bites to my biscuit barrel due to the added sugar content (plus sweetener), low fruit and oat percentage and higher than ideal saturated fat content.
If you’re after a sweet snack with oats, Uncle Tobys Breakfast Bakes have a much higher oat content, lower sugar and saturated fat content, plus they’ll save you a few dollars too.
Mealtimes members have access to heaps of sweet snack recipes, like my muesli biscuits, blondies, raspberry and oat slice, chickpea cookies and more. Come and join me for the low down on my fave sweet snacks!

The composition of food products changes regularly. The nutritional values of the products in this Chewsday Review were correct at the time of publishing.