Tasti Fruit + Vege Wholefood Balls Strawberry & Beetroot | Chewsday Review
Store-bought bliss balls are popular, and I’ve had so many requests for a review of these Tasti Fruit + Vege Wholefood Balls. So today I’m checking out the apple flav- no wait, it’s the strawberry and beetroot flavour… or is it?
- Apple Purée (Concentrate) 77%, Sunflower Seed Butter, Coconut, Dried Beetroot 2%, Freeze Dried Strawberry 1%, Natural Strawberry Flavour.
- These are mostly apple puree concentrate, despite apple not being mentioned in the food name.
- Allergens: none.
- These are a nut-free, store-bought bliss ball option for allergy families and school lunchboxes.
- They contain 2.6g of fibre per serve (3 balls), which works out to be about 20% of a toddler’s and 15% of a young child’s daily fibre needs.
- Like most store-bought bliss balls these have no added salt, but keep in mind that salted caramel flavoured bliss balls will contain some added salt.
- Saturated fat is nearly double the recommendations (5.5g per 100g), but this is similar to most bliss balls thanks to the coconut content.
- These balls only contain 2% dried beetroot and 1% dried strawberry. If your child ate 3 of them, they would be eating 0.7g of beetroot and 0.35g of strawberry. This means nothing nutritionally, so really the dried fruit and veg are added so they can be pictured on the packet.
- These are about $33 per kg, which is more expensive than most dried fruit (approx $10-$20 per kg), similar to other bliss balls, and cheaper than most protein balls.
- As expected these are above recommendations for sugar, but this is all coming from apple puree concentrate. We still want to be mindful of dried fruit and dental health for young children though.
- “Source of fibre”. True.
- “No added sugar”. Again, this is true but no different to other store-bought or home-made bliss balls.
- “Gluten-free and plant-based.” Yes, but so is fruit so hardly a revelation here.
- Nutritionally these are similar to other store-bought bliss balls and are a convenient nut-free alternative for school. I haven’t eaten these though, so can’t vouch for how they taste or if your child will eat them.
- You could make your own bliss balls and add fruit and veg. Members can try my own bliss ball recipes in Toddler Mealtimes and Family Mealtimes.
- You could also offer dried fruit or whole fruit as a cheaper alternative.
The composition of food products changes regularly. The nutritional values of the products in this Chewsday Review were correct at the time of publishing.
