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Bulla Mini Frozen Yoghurt | Chewsday Review

With this hot Perth weather, I’ve had many requests from parents looking for a healthy alternative to ice cream. Frozen yoghurt has got to be a better option…surely? Let’s see, in today’s Chewsday Review! This review features Bulla Strawberry Mini Frozen Yoghurt.

Ingredients

Positives

Fat and saturated fat content meets healthy guidelines.
The sodium content also meets healthy guidelines, which I would expect for a sweet product.
The serving size is small, so even though there are some negatives (detailed below), each pop is only 34g total. This also means they’re probably not particularly filling.
This product would be a source of calcium because it is made from milk, yet the calcium isn’t declared on the label. This makes me think that the liquid sugar must make up a fair portion of the yoghurt to bring the calcium down to a level that they don’t bother declaring. So, actually not a true positive!

Negatives

The sugar content (19.4 g per 100 g) is above the recommended guidelines (less than 15 g per 100 g). Usually with any milk-based product you would expect some naturally occurring lactose to contribute to the sugars. I’d allow about 5 g. The strawberry juice also contributes some sugar (but without any of the fibre of whole strawberries). However, it’s the addition of liquid sugar and glucose that tips this product over the recommendations. In fact, there’s more sugar in this than some ice creams, and more than most custards! Compared to the best of the ‘kid yoghurts’, this product has over twice as much sugar.
At about 50c each, these work out to about the same price per gram as the more expensive yoghurt pouches, but are much less nutritious.

Marketing

“Reduced sugar” Ahhh this is an old marketing pet hate of mine. Technically, this statement only means that the product has less sugar than SOMETHING ELSE. It certainly doesn’t mean it’s low in sugar. In this case, it’s got less sugar per serve when compared to previous Bulla Fruit ’n Yoghurt. This could mean that they’ve taken out 1 g of sugar, or it could mean they’ve made the serving size smaller!!!
“97% fat free” This is true and the fat comes from the milk and the cream.
’No artificial colours or flavours’. Realistically, most products are free from these nowadays.
”Made with real fruit”. Well, yes, the juice is made from real fruit. It has hardly any of the health benefits of real fruit though.

Alternatives

These have a similar nutrition profile to a low-fat strawberry ice cream. If you’re choosing these because you think they are ‘healthier’ than ice-cream, you can totally choose actual ice cream.
For an option with less added sugar and more calcium, you could freeze your own regular yoghurt. This will have a slightly different texture to ‘frozen yoghurt’ products though.
You could also make your own fruit pops by pureeing fruit and freezing into moulds.