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Sunbites Grain Waves Sour Cream & Chives | Chewsday Review

I remember when Grain Waves first came out and they were all the rave as an alternative to chips. But are they really all they’re cracked up to be? Let’s find out...

Ingredients

Wholegrain Cereals (67%) (Corn (41%), Wheat (23%), Oats (3%)), Sunflower Oil and/or Canola Oil, Sugar, Rice, Maltodextrin, Milk Powder, Salt, Mineral Salt (Potassium Chloride), Onion Powder, Yeast Extract, Natural Flavours (Milk, Soy), Food Acids (Citric Acid, Lactic Acid), Cheese Powder (Milk), Whey Powder (Milk), Herbs (Parsley, Chives), Natural Colour (Paprika Extract), Sour Cream Powder (Milk) , Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein, Antioxidants (Tocopherols, Ascorbic Acid, Rosemary Extract).
Common allergens include: wheat, gluten, milk and soy.

Positives

The salt content is within the recommendations at 376mg sodium per 100g, which is a lot lower than most other chips out there.
One serve of these chips (~12 chips) meets 10% of a young child’s and about 8% of an older child’s daily recommended fibre intake. Most chips contain little to no fibre, so this is more comparable to other flavoured wholegrain crackers, like Sunbites Snack Crackers. We can thank the wholegrain corn, wheat and oats for this.
Saturated fat and sugar are both within recommendations.
This product has a great crunch! For kids who like plain and crunchy foods (lots of fussy eaters), this can help not only satisfy their desire for crunchiness but also introduce them to a new flavour profile!
The shape of these chips is also quite fun which could make them quite visually engaging for children.
A bag of Grain Waves cost the same as Smith’s chips but they are cheaper than other brands, like Red Rock Deli and Kettle.

Negatives

Marketing

“Made with real ingredients”. This kind of statement will always make me cringe. Can someone please tell me which food product contains imaginary or fake ingredients?
“30% less fat than crinkle cut potato chips”. They proudly state that these contains on average, 30% less fat than Smith’s Crinkle Cut Potato Chips, but the saturated fat content is fairly similar so it’s not such a big deal.
“Proudly Australian Made”. I try to support local when I can, but this doesn’t actually tell us where the ingredients come from, just that they’re processed in Australia.
“Packed with 65% wholegrains”. The ingredients list actually says 67% but obviously the marketing team didn’t like that number!
“3.5 star health rating”. It seems this is probably being compared to unflavoured wholegrain crackers, because if it was compared to regular potato chips I’d imagine the health star rating might be higher!
“135 calories per serve”. This is so unnecessary and I wouldn’t recommend basing the amount you or your child eats on a products suggested serve or number of calories.

Alternatives

Overall, these are higher in fibre and lower in salt than most regular potato chips. Grain Waves actually seem closer nutritionally to a flavoured cracker than a chip.
If you’re a family with allergies then Macro Lentil Bites are an alternative flavoured snack cracker option (although more expensive).
Plain, rice or corn thins are a cheaper option and are great for adding different toppings and spreads.