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Nice & Natural Thick Shake Bars Strawberry Flavour | Chewsday Review

A thick shake in a bar? Let's see if these shake things up in the lunchbox aisle.

Ingredients

Cereals (45%) [Oats, Rice Puffs (Rice, Sugar, Salt, Barley Malt Extract)], Glucose Syrup, Strawberry Thickshake Blend (11%) [Sweetened Condensed Milk (Milk Solids, Sugar), Milk Solids, Natural Flavours (Contains Milk)], Inulin, Pink Icing [Sugar, Vegetable Fat (Emulsifier (492), Milk Solids, Emulsifier (Soy Lecithin), Natural Flavours, Natural Colour (162)], Sprinkles [Sugar, Maize Starch, Cocoa Butter, Potato Starch, Maltodextrin, Rice Flour, Natural Flavour and Colours (160c, 162)], Glycerine, Vegetable Oils, Emulsifier [Soy Lecithin].
This bar contains sugar in the rice puffs, flavouring, icing and sprinkles, as well as glucose and sweetened condensed milk, so I’m expecting the total sugar content to be reasonably high.
No strawberry in sight in the ingredient list, but you wouldn’t necessarily find it in a thick shake either.
Allergens: milk, soy, gluten
May contain: peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, sulphites, sesame

Positives

Negatives

Sugar exceeds guidelines (18.8g/100g), which doesn’t surprise me due to the multiple types of added sugar.
The price tag of $5 for a 6 pack equates to $0.83 per bar, which is fairly standard for a muesli or cereal bar. But these Nice & Natural Bars are tiny – two thirds the size of Uncle Toby’s Chewy Apricot Muesli Bars or less than half the size of most Carman’s muesli bars, so when compared per kg they’re more than double the price!
Saturated fat (3.7g/100g) exceeds guidelines, which can be traced back to the condensed milk, vegetable fat, vegetable oil and cocoa butter.

Marketing

‘Made with milk, oats, rice puffs, no artificial colours or flavours, and less than a teaspoon of sugar per bar*, these lunchbox treats are both yum and fun!’. They do contain these ingredients and 4.8g sugar per (tiny) bar, so technically true, but I don’t think it’s fun to still be hungry after eating one of these!
‘Brighten up your family’s lunchbox with these yummy treats that taste just like your favourite thickshake!’ Just like a thickshake… yeah not really.
These bars have a 4 star health rating, but I doubt they would make the cut if they weren’t such a small size.

Alternatives