Little Bellies Organic Apricot Date & Oat Bars | Chewsday Review
As requested, this week's Chewsday Review is another popular Little Bellies product, their Organic Apricot Date & Oat Bars. But do they meet the bar? Read on to find out!
- Apricot (38%), Dates (38%), Wholegrain Oat Flour (20%), Sunflower Oil.
- This is a straight-forward ingredient list, and basically as advertised on the front of the pack: fruit, oats and a little oil.
- More than three quarters (76%) of these bars are made from fruit.
- Allergens: gluten (from oats).
- May contain: almond, hazelnut and walnut.
- These bars have no added salt, so as expected, sodium content is low (4mg per 100g).
- Total fat (5.5g per 100g) and saturated fat (0.7g per 100g) are also within guidelines.
- The amount of fibre (1.5g per bar) is not as high as I’d like, but this is reasonable for such a small bar.
- These bars are high in sugar (45.6g per 100g), although they do contain 76% fruit, which we know contains a lot of natural sugars. There is no added sugar (which is a real positive in this market).
- At $4.65 for a box, these are relatively expensive, $0.93 each bar. This product is on the pricier side at $55 per kg. If you’re looking for a more cost-effective option, you can buy dried apricots for as low as $14 per kg, and dates from around $18 per kg.
- Each bar is quite small (17g), so may not be very filling for older kids. In comparison, the size of a muesli bar like Uncle Toby’s is 31g and Carman’s is 45g.
- “No added sugar or salt”: Yep, this is correct. This does not necessarily make a product healthy.
- “Organic”: Remember that containing organic ingredients doesn’t mean the product is magically healthier.
- “Do what’s natural”: Eating food is natural. Again, they are trying to market this product as healthy, without saying this directly.
- “Five perfectly portioned bars”: Is this their way of saying tiny!?
- “Toddlers in Training”, ”12+ months”: Remember, this is only a guide, as all babies develop at different rates.
- “Made with wholegrain oats”: Sure.
- I prefer these Apricot Date & Oat Bars to other fruit bars on the market, such as the Woolworths brand fruit bars which have a lot of added sugar or the Mamia Fruit Bars, which are made with a concentrate rather than whole fruit.
- These bars are similar in price to the Sun Valley True Fruit Bars which also contain whole fruit.
- Little Bellies Organic Apricot & Oat Bars could be a decent choice for a convenient on-the-go snack, however a cheaper alternative would be a piece of fresh fruit, or a handful of dried fruit. You could also try out one of my fruit bar or ball recipes from the Toddler or Family Mealtimes memberships.
The composition of food products changes regularly. The nutritional values of the products in this Chewsday Review were correct at the time of publishing.
