Coco and Lucas’ Kitchen Spaghetti Bolognese | Chewsday Review
Spag bol or spag bog? Ah the great family debate. Whichever you call it, the charm of a ready-made meal is hard to resist. Let’s see if the Coco and Lucas’ Kitchen spaghetti bolognese will pasta the test.
- Bolognese Sauce (56.8%) (Tomato Passata (Tomatoes (99.5%), Salt), Beef Mince (30%), Water, Celery, Brown Onion, Carrot, Tomato Paste, Corn Starch, Canola Oil, Roasted Garlic, Salt, Sugar, Spices (Nutmeg, White Pepper), Herb (Oregano)), Cooked Spaghetti (40.9%) (Durum Wheat Semolina), Shredded Cheese (from Milk).
- At first glance, this looks like an ingredients list that is very similar to a home-cooked spaghetti bolognese!
- Allergens: Gluten.
- May contain: May contain traces of Soy, Tree Nuts, Egg, Lupin, Fish, Crustacea, Sesame and Sulphite due to shared equipment.
- It’s a very convenient meal to have in the freezer and can be ready to eat in under 4 minutes!
- This spag bol is low in sugar (1.4g/100g) and saturated fat (1.8g/100g) which is nice to see in a ready-made meal.
- Containing 30% beef, it has a lot higher meat content than other bolognese products on the market, for example, Annabel Karmel Bolognese Pasta Bake has just 10% beef. This also means that Coco and Lucas’ Kitchen is high in protein (17.2g/100g). A serve will provide 123% of your toddler’s daily protein needs, and 86% for your school-aged kids.
- The iron content isn’t listed on this product, but from my super sleuthing, there is about 2.7mg of iron which provides about 28% of your child’s daily iron needs.
- At $16.80/kg, this works out much more expensive than a homemade spaghetti bolognese.
- Although the sodium content isn’t super high at 117mg/100g, a full serve of this 220g packet contains 257mg. This is almost exceeding the recommended daily sodium intake for young toddlers, and is around half of the daily intake for school aged kids.
- “Lovingly handmade”. I checked out the ‘About’ section on the Coco and Lucas’ Kitchen website, and it looks like the meals are made in a commercial kitchen with the aim the replicate homemade meals. I wonder if there are rules about how handmade something has to be!
- “No artificial preservatives, flavours or colours”. This one gets a tick.
- “Made from at least 90% Australian ingredients”. While the specific Australian-sourced ingredients aren’t clear, this claim is regulated and follows strict standards, so it earns a tick!
- Overall, the ingredients list is very similar to what we’d find in our kitchens at home. It’s a great on-the-go option with real ingredients for those busy weeknights where you need dinner on the table quickly. Of course, making your own spaghetti bolognese and freezing it in advance will be a lot cheaper.
The composition of food products changes regularly. The nutritional values of the products in this Chewsday Review were correct at the time of publishing.
