Healtheries Rice Wheels – Cheese | Chewsday Review
Healtheries cheese flavoured rice wheels are rolling in with lots of lunchbox appeal. Let's take a closer look and see if they are wheel-y as good as they seem.
- Rice (81%), cheese seasoning (milk solids, cheese powder, salt, sugar, maltodextrin, yeast extract, flavours (contains egg), anticaking agent (551), coconut oil), sunflower oil, salt, garlic powder, antioxidant (307), emulsifier (soy lecithin).
- Contains milk, egg, soy.
- The cheese flavoured Rice Wheels contain some added sugar, but at 3.3g per 100g it’s very minimal (less than a teaspoon).
- Saturated fat sits at 1.6g per100g, well within my target of 3g or less per 100g. This is comparable to other packaged snacks like Messy Monkeys Wholegrain Cheese Bites, Arnott’s Bluey Cheese Flavoured Snacks and Infuzions Bluey Poppeas Backyard BBQ.
- This product contains 705mg of sodium per 100g which is getting close to double what I’m looking for (400mg or less per 100)! And for context this is also almost double the sodium content of Smith’s chips, Doritos and Red Rock Deli chips.
- These cheesy rice wheels contain very little fibre with only 0.1g per serve, this is to be expected for a product that contains over 80% rice. I’m looking for products to have at least 3g of fibre. This is similar to Infuzions Bluey Poppeas Backyard BBQ (0.7g per serve), while Messy Monkeys Wholegrain Cheese Bites off more fibre at 2g of fibre per serve and Arnott’s Bluey Cheese Flavoured Snacks at 2.2g per serve.
- Healtheries Cheese Flavoured Rice Wheels are incredibly pricey for what they are. They’ll cost you $5 per pack of 6 (83c per pack or $40 per kg). This is cheaper than Infuzions Bluey Poppeas Backyard BBQ ($80 per kg) and Messy Monkeys Wholegrain Cheese Bites ($50 per kg) but more expensive than Arnott’s Bluey Cheese Crackers ($27 per kg) and plain rice cakes (typically $12-15 per kg).
- “Gluten free.” Yes, but this is only important for people with coeliac disease or non-coeliac gluten sensitivity.
- “Air popped not fried.” Sure.
- “Low sugar.” Yes, as expected for a savoury snack.
- “Lunchbox friendly.” Technically yes, but if you’ve got a ‘nude food’ rule you’ll need to decant these.
- “65% less fat than regular potato chips.” Yes, but they contain 30-50% more salt than regular potato chips!
- “Not suitable for children under 3 years.” The small, round shape makes them a choking hazard for little ones. I haven’t taste-tested these so can’t confirm but the shape is certainly risky.
- Overall I’m not wheel-y impressed by Healtheries Cheese Flavoured Rice Wheels. They offer minimal fibre, are high in salt and expensive.
- Similar packaged snacks like Messy Monkeys Whole Grain Bites Cheese and Arnott’s Bluey Pizza Flavoured Snacks offer more fibre and less salt for a similar price.
- Plain rice crackers, corn thins and rice cakes are much cheaper and you can pair them with dips and spreads for a more substantial lunchbox snack.
- Looking for more support choosing snacks? Our Toddler and Family Mealtimes memberships include a comprehensive product guide for savoury snacks, as well as over 15 other categories.
The composition of food products changes regularly. The nutritional values of the products in this Chewsday Review were correct at the time of publishing.
