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Heinz Broccoli Fries | Chewsday Review

A Chewsday Review of Heinz Broccoli Fries has been requested by a lot of you! I must admit I was a little reluctant to review them, because as you may or may not know, I don’t love potatoes- it’s not a “health” thing, it’s just a personal preference. I’m not that excited about these either, but let’s take a proper look.

Ingredients

Broccoli (42%), Potato Flakes, Potato, Wheat Flour, Sunflower Oil, Onion, Water, Maize Starch, Salt, Emulsifier (461), Citrus Fibre, Sugar, Dried Glucose Syrup (Wheat), Raising Agent (500), Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, White Pepper, Yeast.
Broccoli is the first ingredient, but it’s interesting to me that potato flakes and potato are listed separately on the ingredients list. Food companies have to list ingredients in order of the amount in the food (from highest to lowest) and I suspect when combined, there is more potato than broccoli in these broccoli chips.
I’m not worried about any of the other ingredients used here. They are likely used to improve the texture (broccoli can be a little grainy) and to add extra flavour (or cover up the broccoli taste).
Allergens: Wheat and gluten.

Positives

I’m impressed that these contain as much broccoli as they do. If you ate a “serve” (which is only a measly 5 fries FYI) you’d be eating about 25g of broccoli, or ⅓ of a serve of vegetables.
These are low in sugar, but do contain some added sugar. Again regular frozen chips don’t usually have any added sugar.
These are within guidelines for total and saturated fat, but so are regular potato chips.

Negatives

Sodium isn’t excessive at 310mg per 100g, but regular frozen chips usually contain very minimal sodium (until you add salt to them). If you added more salt to these they would be above recommendations, and those 5 measly fries (without any extra salt) are already about 20% of a toddler’s daily recommended MAXIMUM sodium intake.
These are some pricey chippies. Regular branded potato chips are about $5 per kilo, but these come in such a small 400g bag, so end up at $15 per kilo.
I’d caution against offering these as a way of ‘sneaking’ in broccoli. Sneaking vegetables creates a sense of mistrust and can backfire, so if your child asks why these are slightly green, always be upfront that they contain some broccoli.

Marketing

Alternatives

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with these, although I cannot comment on the taste (I would not be ok with the texture), so if your family enjoys these, they’re fine to offer.
If you’re choosing these over regular potato chips because they appear “healthier,” but you don’t enjoy them, then you can absolutely just choose the potato chips. These are not particularly special just because they contain a bit of broccoli.
If you’re choosing these because you actually just really want your child to eat broccoli, I’d recommend joining Toddler Mealtimes or Family Mealtimes for more support to take the stress out of mealtimes.