Rafferty’s Garden Apple Snack Bars | Chewsday Review
This week, I'm about to peel back the layers and see whether these little bars are the apple of my eye. Let's get to the core of this!
- Wheat flour, apple paste (30%) [apple puree concentrate (48%), sugar, glucose, humectant (glycerol), wheat fibre, citrus fibre, acid (malic), natural flavour, ground cinnamon], dextrose, water, wholegrain oat flour (5%), butter (contains milk), sugar, whey powder (from milk), humectant (glycerol), canola oil, raising agent (500, 450, 341, 541), whey protein concentrate (from milk), natural flavour, emulsifier (soy lecithin), caramelised sugar, ground cinnamon.
- Sugar, glucose, dextrose and caramelised sugar are all names for added sugar, so I’m expecting the overall sugar content to be quite high.
- Allergens: Gluten, soy & milk.
- May contain: Peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seeds, egg and lupin.
- Saturated fat and total fat are within my guidelines.
- Sodium is within guidelines, which is to be expected as there is no added salt in these bars.
- Although the exact fibre content isn’t listed, these snack bars are a source of fibre as they contain oat flour, wheat flour and apple puree.
- The apple filling in these bars makes up 30% of the bar, but only half of that is fruit, meaning the actual apple content of these bars is only about 2 grams!
- At 31.7g per 100g, the sugar content of these snack bars is higher than my guidelines by more than double. There are five different sources of added sugar in these bars! In comparison, although Little Bellies Organic Apricot Date & Oat Bars are high in total sugar, it’s all naturally occurring, and they have no added sugar.
- The fibre content isn’t even listed so I’m assuming it is low and the company didn’t want to include it.
- These will cost you $5.50 for an 8 pack (that’s 69c per bar), which is close to double the price of Woolworths Oven Baked Apple & Blueberry Filled Bars (40c per bar).
- The bars are only 16g each, so they are pretty small and might not fill up your bub’s belly!
- “No artificial colours, flavours or preservatives”. Yep.
- “Soft, easy to eat texture”. Soft – true. Easy to eat – that depends on whether your child likes them or not!
- “Perfect for little hands”. Little bars to fit into little hands – makes sense.
- Overall, I wouldn’t recommend these as a regular snack option due to the high added sugar and unknown fibre content. Little Bellies Organic Apricot Date & Oat Bars are a lower added sugar alternative.
- Fresh, tinned or dried fruit is always a more cost-effective alternative. If you’re a Baby Mealtimes member you can access my Peach Bars or Wholemeal Apple and Cinnamon Pikelets recipes in the recipe collection.
- Looking for more? Find my tips and recommendations for choosing baby snacks and tinned fruit in the Baby Mealtimes membership.
The composition of food products changes regularly. The nutritional values of the products in this Chewsday Review were correct at the time of publishing.
