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Chia Pod Smooth Mixed Berry | Chewsday Review

Another week, another food in a pouch! I’ve had a few requests for these, so they must be popular! Today’s Chewsday Review features the Mixed Berry Chia Pod.

Ingredients

Gelled Ground Chia Seed (67%) (Filtered Water, Ground Chia Seed (5%)), Apple Puree, Coconut Milk (9%), Banana Puree, Organic Cane Sugar, Mixed Berry Juice Concentrate (3%) (Red Grape, White Grape, Blueberry (13%), Yum Berry (10%), Raspberry (10%), Mulberry (5%) Juice Concentrates), Strawberry Puree (1%), Mineral Salt (Calcium Lactate), Tapioca Starch, Natural Flavour, Vegetable Gum (Guar Gum), Grape Skin Extract, Acidity Regulators (Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid).
The ingredients list is hard to read, but basically it’s 6g of chia seeds, 73g water and 11g coconut milk with a bit of fruit/starch/gums.
The chia seeds are grown in Australia but the product is made in Thailand.
Common allergens include: none

Positives

There is a decent amount of calcium added to the product (170mg/100g) which provides 40% of a toddlers daily requirements and 29% of an older child’s calcium requirements. This is equivalent to many yoghurts.
Sugar content is reasonably low at 6.9g/100g but this is mostly from added sugar (cane sugar and juice concentrate), plus some from apple and banana puree. It’s within guidelines though!
Source of Omega 3 fatty acids (great brain fats) with 1.2g per pack.
Fibre is reasonable at 2.2g/pack. This works out to 16% a toddlers daily requirements and 12% of an older child’s daily fibre requirements.
The saturated fat content is within guidelines.

Negatives

Marketing

“Plant-based nutrition” True, there are no animal products in this pack.
“Can be re-chilled” These can actually be kept in the pantry but recommended to be enjoyed cold for maximum enjoyment. This is handy and something to pack for plane or overseas travel
“Good source of calcium” I was surprised to see added calcium, and it surprises me that they don’t do this with more dairy-free yoghurts.
The mixed berry label surprises me, because there’s only 3% mixed berry juice concentrate (basically sugar from berries) and 1% strawberry puree, yet it has more than 12% apple and banana puree. The banana chia pod obviously isn’t as cool!

Alternatives