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SunRice Mini Bites | Chewsday Review

Happy Chewsday everyone! Today I'm reviewing another monster themed snack, which can be found in the health food aisle of your nearest supermarket. This one is SunRice Wholegrain Brown Rice Mini Bites, in a scary salt and vinegar flavour (their description not mine!)

Ingredients

Positives

Negatives

Not a particularly high fibre content, especially considering they’re promoting the Wholegrain content. A 20g pack provides 0.7g of fibre, which is about 5% of a toddler’s requirements, and almost 4% of primary school aged requirements. Comparatively, 20g of regular rice cakes provides 1g of fibre and 20g of corn cakes provides 2g of fibre.
Relatively expensive at 68c per 20g pack, which works out to about $34/kilo. Comparatively rice cakes are about $13/kilo.
High sodium content at 540mg/100g which exceeds healthy guidelines. Although, this is 35% less sodium than potato chips.

Marketing

“A yummy and healthy lunchbox snack” Yummy:yes. Healthy:debatable. They’re not particularly unhealthy, nor are they particularly healthy.
“Made with Wholegrain brown rice.” This is a fact.
“No artificial colours or flavours.” Like most other products.
“Gluten free.” Good for some allergic kiddies.
“A crispy alternative to chips.” Definitely a better option than chips.
Healthy School Canteen Strategy- Amber Compliant. This strategy defines amber foods as those that may contain some valuable nutrients (e.g. Carbohydrates) but may be too high in saturated fat (no), sugar (no) and sodium (yes) to be categorised as green foods (everyday foods). Basically, they’re a ‘sometimes’ food.