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Tamar Valley Yoghurt | Chewsday Review

Today's review is another kiddie yoghurt, because I've had a couple of requests for this particular brand. So, welcome to the stage... Tamar Valley Kids No Added Sugar Yoghurt (strawberry)

Ingredients

Whole milk, cream, milk solids, strawberry pulp (4.2%), rice starch, natural flavours, lemon pulp, live yoghurt culture.
You’ll notice that sugar is not listed as an ingredient, which means that no sugar was added to the yoghurt during production. This is a great thing. However, there will still be some sugars present in the final product, due to those that occur naturally in milk and in strawberries. This is NOT a bad thing!
Common allergens include: milk

Positives

No added sugar which means that it easily meets sugar guidelines. In fact, this yoghurt has the lowest sugar content of all the kiddie yoghurts on the market, at only 3.4g per 100g. This 2/3 less than the most sugary yoghurt, and about half the sugar of most of the kiddie yoghurts. It certainly doesn’t have the overly sweet taste of some of the yoghurts on the market.
Contains a small amount of strawberry pulp, but no lumps for texture sensitive kids
Live cultures for healthy tummies
A source of some calcium with one pouch providing 31% of a toddler’s requirements and 22% of a young child’s daily requirements.

Negatives

Although this yoghurt provides some calcium, it’s less than half the calcium provided by some other kiddie yoghurts like the Petit Miam no added sugar, and slightly less than ones like Brownes or Woolies (although this one has more sugar). The differences between the last few aren’t huge in the scheme of things though.
Squeezie packs are convenient and less messy than spoons BUT they really don’t help children to develop biting and chewing skills that they need for other foods. They also contribute significantly to plastic waste. I’d prefer this yoghurt scooped out of a bigger tub.
One of the lower protein contents compared to the other yoghurts, but as I always say- Australian kids get PLENTY of protein, so this isn’t a true negative.
This yoghurt also has the highest saturated fat (bad fat) content of all of the yoghurts I looked at, putting it at 1.5 times the recommended level. This comes from the two ingredients in the greatest amount- whole milk and cream. It also has the highest fat content overall. I certainly don’t think that everything needs to be low fat, especially not for kids less than 2 years of age, but I am cautious about higher saturated fat levels.

Marketing

”No sugar added” Obviously this product promotes the low sugar content, which is a pretty hot topic at the moment. It does also have significantly less sugar than lots of other fruit flavoured kids yogurts.
The ‘all natural’ marketing line is also a lure for parents worried about giving their kids artificial ingredients. Realistically, most yoghurts are made from natural ingredients, so this doesn’t really set this product apart from the rest.
”No artificial colours, flavours or preservatives” (again, as is the case for most kid’s yoghurts). But I guess this is relevant regarding no no artificial sweeteners, which you’ll find in some of the diet/no added sugar yoghurts designed for adults.

Alternatives

This isn’t a bad option, although I’m not a huge fan of the higher than normal saturated fat content. Also, you don’t have to buy ‘kid’ yoghurt for your child. A scoop out of the family tub is much better. However, I know that people like to use these, particularly when out and about.
Other flavoured yoghurt pouches with no added sugar and a lower saturated fat content include Woolworths No Added Sugar, Brownes No Added Sugar, Farmers Union No Added Sugar and Petit Miam No Added Sugar yoghurt pouches.
If your child likes these then I wouldn’t swap unnecessarily. Otherwise, yoghurts with as low a sugar content as possible (at least less than 10g of sugar per 100g) and calcium content of more than 200mg per 100g. I like the Petit Miam no added sugar myself.