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Up&Go Liquid Breakfast | Chewsday Review

Up&Go Liquid Breakfast. Is it equivalent to two Weet-Bix and milk, or is it a chocolate milkshake? Today’s review will find out!

Ingredients

Positives

Good fibre content. Works out to 4g per serve, and anything higher than 3g per serve is great! This is coming from plant fibre and oat flour. I can’t help but be curious which plant makes up the “plant fibre”.
This is low in sodium, which I’d expect.
Sugar content just sneaks in at 6.5g per100g (we’re aiming for less than 7.5g per 100g in drinks) but about a third of this is from added sugar, which isn’t ideal (see below). In comparison, the No Added Sugar Up&Go has 4.2g of naturally occurring sugar per 100ml (but does contain sweeteners).
Total fat content and saturated fat content are good.
Calcium content (300mg per serve) works out to 60% of a toddler’s needs and over 40% of a young school child’s needs. Per 100ml, the calcium content (120mg per 100ml) is roughly the same as cow’s milk (128mg per 100ml).
Protein content is equivalent to the amount in plain cow’s milk.

Negatives

There is naturally some sugar in milk (or skim milk powder) but cane sugar, maltodextrin and fructose have been added here. We don’t know exactly how much sugar is coming from naturally occurring sugar in the skim milk powder, but I’d expect there is about 1-2 tsp of added sugar in each tetra pack.
Like the dairy-free Up&Go, this isn’t fortified with iron.
Drinks don’t keep you full for as long as food does, so this may mean you have a hungry kiddo before it’s morning tea time.

Marketing

Alternatives

Actually this is closer to 2 Weet-Bix and milk than a chocolate milkshake. The biggest downside is that it doesn’t contain any iron, which Weet-Bix do.
Overall I’m pleasantly surprised by the nutritional content of Up&Go. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some added sugar, which isn’t ideal in a breakfast food, but it’s less than lots of cereals, whilst being higher in fibre than many cereals. My go-to cereal options are still Weet-Bix, Low Sugar Cheerios, Sultana Bran or oats.
Because it doesn’t contain iron, I wouldn’t recommend this as a regular breakfast option. However, it is convenient and could be included as part of breakfast or as a handy option for extra rushed mornings.
If you’re trying to offer high iron foods regularly, you could make your own smoothie and add some crushed Weet-Bix for iron.