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Weet-Bix Multi-Grain+ Blends | Chewsday Review

It’s no secret that I love Weet-Bix! They are one of the few breakfast cereal options with added iron that aren't high in added sugar. So how do the Weet-Bix Blends range stack up to the OG?

Ingredients

Wholegrain cereals (73%) [wheat (39%), rye (12%), sorghum (11%), oats (11%)], rice, sugar, puffed wheat, barley malt extract, coconut (1.5%), salt, honey (0.5%), vegetable oil, vitamins [niacin, riboflavin, vitamin E, thiamin, folate], mineral (iron).
Barley malt extract is essentially another form of sugar (this is found in regular Weet-Bix too).
Common allergens: wheat and gluten
May contain: lupin, milk, sesame, soy and tree nuts.

Positives

Sugar is within the guidelines, although it is 3 times higher than regular Weet-Bix.
These are low total fat and saturated fat and well within recommendations. Both are slightly higher than regular Weet-Bix though, likely due to the addition of vegetable oil and coconut.
Like regular Weet-Bix these are a good source of fibre at 4.4g per serve. Anything higher than 3g per serve is considered a high fibre food. Compared to regular Weet-Bix you’d be mistaken to think that these are higher in fibre (because the serve size is slightly larger), but when we compare the fibre content per 100g, regular Weet-bix is higher with 12.9g per 100g compared to the Weet-Bix Multi-Grain+ with 9.2g of fibre per 100g.
The sodium (salt) content is within guidelines at 264mg per 100g, which is comparable to regular Weet-Bix (270mg per 100g), but more than Little Kids Weet-Bix which have only 10mg per 100g.
The Multi-Grain+ Blends are fortified with iron, like regular Weet-Bix. One serve (or 2 Weet-Bix Blends) provides about 1/3 of a young child’s daily iron requirements, so this is a big plus. It is worth noting that thanks again to the larger serve size of Weet-Bix Blends when comparing the iron content per 100g, they contain about 2/3 the amount of iron as regular Weet-Bix.

Negatives

This cereal (and all of the Weet-Bix Blends range) use honey as a sweetener, which is only really important for babies as we don’t want to feed our babies honey until after 1 year of age. This is because of the risk of a toxin called botulism found in honey.
Pretty pricey! At $6 for a standard 12 serve pack or roughly $11 per kg, it is certainly cheaper to buy a value pack of regular Weet-Bix for $5 per kg.

Marketing

“The goodness of 4 wholegrains.” True. Variety of wholegrains is important, but I didn’t mention this as a positive because you’re actually getting less wholegrains overall with the Multi-Grain Blend (73%) compared to regular Weet-Bix (97%).
“A good source of B vitamins to help you release the energy that you need.” Yep! As you can see in the ingredients, this cereal has added B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin and niacin), just like regular Weet-Bix and many other breakfast cereals.
“Protein for muscle mass support.” I mean technically yes, but if you add cow’s milk that will probably contribute more protein to the meal than the actual cereal.

Alternatives

Despite the clever ‘multi-grain’ and ‘wholegrain’ claims, regular Weet-Bix are still my preference… just in case you didn’t sense that already!
This goes for the rest of the Weet-Bix Blends range too. The ‘Honey and Golden Oats’ and ‘Cranberry and Coconut’ blends also contain a decent amount of fibre, but have higher sugar content (>10g per 100g) from the addition of dried fruit and fruit puree concentrates.
Weet-Bix Little Kids Essentials are also a great option, with even less sodium and sugar than regular Weet-Bix. However, this does come at a cost and isn’t absolutely necessary.
You can add variety to regular Weet-Bix by adding fresh fruit or ‘breakfast sprinkles’ (if you’re a Baby Mealtimes or Toddler Mealtimes member you will know what I’m talking about). This keeps brekkie exciting while adding new tastes and textures.