Kellogg’s Coco Pops Chocos | Chewsday Review

From pops to pillows to chex, the Coco Pops range is bursting with different shapes. Today we’re taking a closer look at Coco Pops Chocos. Will these chocolate rings go against the grain, or are they just another crunchy chocolate milkshake?

Ingredients

Cereals (61%) [wheat flour, maize flour, whole grain oat flour, barley flour, rice flour], sugar, cocoa (9%), fructo-oligosaccharides, oat fibre, minerals (calcium carbonate, iron, zinc oxide), salt, natural flavour, antioxidant (rosemary extract), vitamins (niacin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, folate).
The second ingredient listed is sugar, hinting that the overall sugar content is likely to be high.
Fructo-oligosaccharides are a type of prebiotic that feed our beneficial gut bacteria.
Allergens: gluten, wheat
May contain: peanut, tree nuts, soy.

Positives

Coco Pops Chocos have added iron (10mg per 100g). One serve of Coco Pops Chocos offers 3mg of iron. This is more than a quarter of a toddler’s daily iron needs and a third of a school-aged child’s daily iron needs. Cereals with added iron are great for little ones who are still learning to eat a variety of high iron foods like meat and legumes.
These have added B vitamins (niacin, riboflavin, folate and vitamin B6) which help to support energy levels and metabolism, as well as zinc and calcium.
Despite having added salt, the sodium content of Coco Pops Chocos (275mg per 100g) meets our recommendation of less than 400mg per 100g, and has a similar amount to original Weet-Bix (270mg per 100g).
Total fat and saturated fat are within recommendations.

Negatives

Coco Pops Chocos just miss the target for fibre (2.8g per serve). Low Sugar Vanilla Cheerios have almost double the fibre per serve (5.1g per serve). Although, thanks to the wholegrain oat flour and oat fibre, these have more fibre than the rest of the Coco Pops range.
Not surprisingly, these Chocos are high in sugar (24.1g per 100g), which all comes from added sugar. This is similar to other chocolate flavoured cereals on the market, ranging from 18-35g of sugar per 100g.
At $28.80 per kg, Coco Pops Chocos cost a pretty penny.

Marketing

“Real nourishment”. This statement is on Kellogg’s range of cereals that have a health star rating between 3.5 to 5 stars and are fortified with vitamins and minerals, to “provide a healthier choice within the cereal category”. While this is technically correct, health star ratings can be misleading, and I’m not a fan of placing foods into categories of “good” and “bad” or “real” and “fake”.
“4 star health rating”. This means the nutrition profile of these Chocos fairs quite well when compared to other similar cereals, likely due to the added vitamins and minerals, and fibre.
“7 essential vitamins and minerals”. True.
“Multigrain and fibre”. Technically correct, although lower in fibre than I would like.
“Just like a chocolate milkshake only crunchy”. The classic Coco Pops marketing!

Alternatives

Overall, these don’t make my list of go-to brekkie cereals, mostly due to the high added sugar content.
Low Sugar Vanilla Cheerios or rolled oats are lower in sugar and higher in fibre. They’re also much kinder to your wallet.
Looking for more on choosing breakfast cereal? My Baby, Toddler and Family Mealtimes memberships include a comprehensive product selection guide for breakfast cereals, 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.