Arnott's Teeny Tiny Teddy Choc Cereal (2)

Arnott’s Teeny Tiny Teddy Choc Cereal | Chewsday Review

Will I be the bear-er of bad news on this classic biscuit-turned-cereal? Read today’s Chewsday Review to find out. And yes, I know my puns are un-bearable.

Ingredients

Positives

Fat and saturated fat are within guidelines.
Although Teeny Tiny Teddy Choc Cereal has added salt, the sodium content of 178mg per 100g is below our target for cereals. This is a lot less than Coco Pops (330mg per 100g) and lower than Weet-Bix (270mg per 100g).
I actually loved the dark chocolatey flavour of these as a snack or in a trail mix, and so did Elsie! I will say our taste test divided the Mealtimes team (someone even used the word ‘hate’), so the jury is still out.

Negatives

Teeny Tiny Teddy cereal has no added iron, which is a huge disappointment! Cereals can be such an easy way for fussy toddlers to get iron in their diet.
Sugar is above guidelines at 21.9 g per 100g, all coming from added sugar. In fact, it’s not that far off the sugar content of Nutri-Grain (24.0g per 100g) and Milo Cereal (26.9g per 100g), and much higher than Weet-Bix (3.0g per 100g) and Low Sugar Vanilla Cheerios (4.1g per 100g).
Thanks to added chickpea fibre and psyllium husk, this cereal has 2.2g of fibre per serve, which is ok, but not amazing. Low Sugar Vanilla Cheerios have more than double the fibre per serve. Freedom Foods XO Crunch is another gluten free chocolate flavoured cereal with similar sugar content but more fibre (although I still wouldn’t recommend this as an everyday option).
At $15 per kg, this cereal is three times the price of Weet-Bix ($5/kg), and more expensive than Nutri-Grain ($13/kg). The Tiny Teddy marketing comes at a price! It is cheaper than Uncle Toby’s Nat Bears ($40 per kg).
If your kids are hoping this cereal will look like the biscuit variety, they’ll be sorely disappointed. Unless they’re really good at squinting and using some serious imagination… These DO NOT look like tiny teddies.

Marketing

“Made with real cocoa, this delectable crunchy cereal containing wholegrain energy is packed with delicious chocolatey goodness to start the day, minus the nasties”. Chocolatey goodness is a bit of a stretch, and this cereal only contains 8% cocoa powder.
“Source of fibre and wholegrain”. True, although less than I’d like.
“Aussie Made”. Tick. Made in Australia from at least 90% Australian ingredients.
“No artificial colours, flavours or preservatives”. Yes, but ‘natural’ is not always best.
“Your choice in the cereal aisle just got smaller, yummier and a whole lot more fun!”. Smaller than Tiny Teddies? Tick. I’m not even sure what the rest of this statement means!

Alternatives

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