Coles Mini Monkey Biscuits | Chewsday Review

This week I'm checking out Coles Mini Monkey Biscuits to see how they compare to the classic favourite, Tiny Teddies. It's the battle of the little animal biscuits apparently... Let's see if they are appealing or ape-solutely just another sweet biscuit.

Ingredients

Wheat Flour, Sugar, Palm Oil, Butter (6%) [Pasteurised Cream (Milk)], Gluten Free-Icing Mix [Corn Starch, Caster Sugar, Tapioca Starch], Cornflour, Milk Powder, Egg, Natural Butter Flavour, Salt, Ammonium Carbonates, Sodium Bicarbonates.
Allergens: wheat, gluten, egg and milk
May contain: cashew, pecan, sesame, soy, Brazil nut, macadamia, pistachio, lupin, sulphites, walnut, almond, hazelnut, peanut, pine nut

Positives

Negatives

Sodium is above recommendations at 510g (128mg per packet). This is nearly double Tiny Teddies Choc Chip flavour, which are only 265mg per 100g (the lowest I found) and more than all of the Aldi Teddy Biscuit flavours (290-370mg per 100g).
It’s no surprise these are high in added sugar, but at 17.1g per 100g this is less than Tiny Teddies and Aldi Teddy Biscuits (which are 25-30g of sugar per 100g depending on the flavour).
The fibre content is <1g per packet, so not close to our 3g per serve target. Keeping in mind the serving size is small (only 25g), but a homemade oat biscuit would probably contribute more.
Saturated fat is 9.7g per 100g, which is well above the <3g per 100g target. The same can be said for Tiny Teddies and Aldi’s Teddy Biscuits.
Individual packets are convenient but not great for the environment. I’d like to know when Tiny Teddies stopped coming in a share pack? It seems you can only buy the gluten-free or choc coated in the bigger 200g box.

Marketing

Alternatives

Overall nothing in this review is really that surprising. They’re a monkey shaped biscuit and contain sugar and saturated fat like other sweet biscuits.
They are fairly salty for a sweet biscuit, so you could opt for Tiny Teddies or Aldi’s Teddy Biscuits if you’re looking to reduce your family’s sodium intake.
For a lower sugar, higher fibre, sweet snack, I’d tend to recommend a muesli bar (typically from the Carman’s or Uncle Tobys range), but if your child enjoys these (or other biscuits) you can still include them as part of a healthy diet. If offering biscuits makes you feel a little uncomfortable, I’d love to support you in my Mealtimes membership.

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