Milk biscuit blast from past still a weird munch

Healtheries Chocolate Milk Biscuits - $3.99 for 210g or 10 biscuits at Pak'n Save $5.99 at Countdown. Photo / Wendyl Nissen

Memories of primary school linger in chalky snacks but they’re an acquired taste.

The last time I came across these milk biscuits was at primary school in the late 60s.

I vaguely remember they were being sent to starving children in India and we were either eating them to see what it was like to be starving or as an incentive to raise money. I'm not sure which.

The idea was conceived by former chairman of the Citizens' Association for Racial Equality, Harold Innes, who opposed the Springbok rugby tour in 1965. He founded the Food Bank of New Zealand which produced the milk biscuits for developing countries from dairy surpluses.

Ingredients

Milk solids (75%)
This is what is left when the water is taken out of milk. At 75% this biscuit is mostly milk.

Lactose
This is a sugar found in milk, so this will be added to give the biscuit some sweet flavour.

Dextrose
This is another form of sugar, also in here for flavour.

Cocoa
This provides the chocolate flavour.

Anti-caking agent (silicon dioxide)
This is basically silica which has the food code 551. It will help the biscuits have a smooth, powdery consistency.

Emulsifier (soy lecithin)
A natural product taken from soy, it helps keep the texture in the biscuit.

Magnesium stearate
I'm not sure, but this could be in here to stop the biscuits sticking in the machinery when they are made. It is a common ingredient in tablets.

Flavour
This will be artificial flavour.

My recommendation

My taste for these hasn't changed in the past 45 years.

They are a weird thing to eat, like crunching into a piece of chalk which tastes like a chocolate milkshake. But they are in all the supermarkets so someone must be eating them.

One biscuit will give you 18 per cent of your recommended dietary intake of calcium and 10.4g or two teaspoons of sugar.

I guess if you were camping up a mountain far away from a dairy which could actually make you a chocolate milkshake, you might find nibbling on one of these a rare treat.

Which is apparently what you do.

A website I found advised that tiny, mouse-like nibbles prevented the biscuit from becoming a bit sticky and sludgy in the mouth.

Highlights

• A bit like a chocolate milkshake in a biscuit.

• Each biscuit gives you 18% of your RDI of calcium.

• Uses artificial flavour.

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