McVities Healthier Choice Rich Tea Biscuits | Chewsday Review

McVities call these "Healthier Choice" biscuits... Let's find out if they'll crumble under the pressure of my review.

Ingredients

Positives

Sodium is within recommendations at 269mg per 100g and one biscuit contains only 22mg of sodium. This is slightly less than Little Bellies Organic Animal Biscuits but about the same as Milk Arrowroot biscuits.
These contain sunflower oil as their fat source, so I’m not surprised that saturated fat is within recommendations and only 1.5g per 100g. In comparison Milk Arrowroot biscuits contain vegetable oil and Little Bellies Organic Animal Biscuits contain palm oil and both of their saturated fat is approximately 3 times the amount (5.4g and 4.4g per 100g, respectively).
The sugar is all from added sugar sources, but comes in within recommendations at only 12.8g per 100g. When we break it down further this is 1.1g of sugar per biscuit. This is less than both Milk Arrowroots (22.5g of sugar per 100g or 5.5g per biscuit) and Little Bellies Organic Animal Biscuits (19.5g per 100g).
These biscuits don’t contain any milk solids. This is only really a positive if your child has a milk allergy.

Negatives

Like many commercial sweet biscuits, fibre is lacking at only 0.7g per biscuit. Dried fruit bars, muesli bars and even some homemade biscuits often contain more fibre than these.
When they’re full price they’re $5 for 300g, but they do often go on sale. This makes them more expensive than Arnott’s Milk Arrowroots ($2.50 for a 250g packet) but wayyyy cheaper than Little Bellies Animal Biscuits ($5.50 for a measly 130g box).

Marketing

“The healthier choice.” If healthier means slightly lower in sugar, sure.
“30% less sugar than standard McVitites Rich Tea [biscuits]”. Yep, so per 100g the classic biscuits contain 20g of sugar, but when we look at it per biscuit it is only a teeny difference of 0.6g.
“3.5 star health rating.” This means it compares okay to other biscuits. I suspect if they had a bit more fibre we would see a 4-4.5 star rating.

Alternatives

Overall this commercial biscuit is lower in sugar than many on the market, while still being low in saturated fat and sodium.
They’re fairly low in fibre so not a super substantial snack on their own, but could be paired with fruit or veg and dip for a more balanced option.
If your little one’s grandparents are keen on giving them biscuits this could be an option you suggest (but it certainly isn’t something you need to include).
For older kids I tend to recommend choosing the sweet biscuit that you all enjoy. It really doesn’t have to be the most nutritious option.

The composition of food products changes regularly. The nutritional values of the products in this Chewsday Review were correct at the time of publishing.