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.

The composition of food products changes regularly. The nutritional values of the products in this Chewsday Review were correct at the time of publishing.