Their latest review of 224 cereal, muesli, nut, seed and raw snack bars found some products were packed with added sugars but masked their contents with references to “natural” ingredients such as fruit and yoghurt.
Choice’s Tom Godfrey says the real fruit content in some snack bars was “farcical”, with Kellogg’s Raspberry & Apple K-Time Twists containing just four per cent raspberry juice concentrate and no raspberry whole fruit.
Aldi’s Hillcrest Chewy Muesli Bars Strawberry & Yoghurt depicts fresh strawberries on its box but instead it contains “strawberry flavoured fruit pieces” which consist of fruit puree concentrates, flavour and a range of additives.
Mr Godfrey says consumers shouldn’t get sucked in by marketing terms such as “natural” or “low fat” and “low GI”.
“Unfortunately, when it comes to snack bars, relying on marketing messages and brand names in the supermarket is no recipe for finding real fruit in processed foods and can leave you drowning in a sea of added sugar,” he said.
“Making matters worse, there is currently no requirement in Australia for food companies to detail added sugars on packs. This makes it easier for the junk food giants to sweeten the truth with their dodgy ‘health halos’ on pack..”
