Wendyl Wants to Know: Healthy biscuits for breakfast on the go

Weetbix Go biscuits. Photo / Wendyl Nissen

I'm not a big fan of "rush and go" breakfasts. I'm a bit old-fashioned and feel that if you haven't got 10 minutes to pour some milk on cereal or make some toast, then quite frankly you should have got up a bit earlier.

But demand is there and I'm sure the people at Sanitarium were delighted to try out a new product using the Weet-Bix brand.

These are packs for four biscuits designed for on-the-go consumption. I know this because there's a picture on the back of the pack of the biscuits with a takeaway coffee cup, an iPhone and a banana.

Weet-Bix GO Breakfast Biscuits apricot coconut flavour fusion - $4.99 for 250g (five packs of four)

Ingredients ( in order of greatest quantity first):

Cereals (57 per cent)[wholegrains (51 per cent) (wheat flour, Weet-Bix (13 per cent) {wheat (13 per cent), raw sugar, salt, barley malt extract, vitamins (niacin, thiamine, riboflavin, folate), mineral (iron)}), wheat flour]

This rather confusing list of various parentheses basically means there's mashed up Weet-Bix in here plus some added wholegrains and flour.

Sugar

Not too much sugar in here at 8.9g or just over two teaspoons per four biscuits but a lot more than normal Weet-Bix which has only 2.8g per 100g, which is the weight of eight of these biscuits.

Sunola oil

I thought this was a misprint at first but it turns out this is another name for sunflower oil. This is made from sunflower seeds and most of the oil is unsaturated which makes it a healthy option.

Desiccated coconut (4 per cent)

This is dried coconut as you would use in baking.

Honey

In here for flavour.

Fruit purees (apricot (1 per cent), apple)

This is a very small amount of fruit.

Vegetable fibre

Not sure what vegetable this fibre has come from but it will be in here to ramp up the fibre content of these biscuits. You will get 4g of fibre per four biscuits.

Invert sugar

This is sugar which has been treated to split into glucose and fructose. It is sweeter than sugar and when used in processed foods remains more moist and less prone to crystallisation.

Salt

You'll get 163mg of sodium per four biscuits.

Humectant (glycerol)

A humectant is something which holds moisture in a food product. In this case it is glycerol or glycerine.

Flavour

This is most likely to be artificial flavour as there is no mention of natural on the packet.

Raising agents (500, 503)

These are baking soda (500) and ammonium carbonate (503) which is made from heating ammonium chloride and chalk.

Powdered cellulose

This is more added fibre in the form of insoluble dietary fibre. This is tasteless, odourless and colourless and produced from components of plants.

Acid (malic, ascorbic)

Malic acid is a natural substance found in fruits and vegetables and ascorbic acid is Vitamin C.

Gelling agent (pectin)Pectin is used in jam to hold it together in a jelly.

Colour (annatto)

This is a natural peach colour made from the seed coating of the tropical Annatto tree.

My recommendations

These actually do taste like cereal squashed into a biscuit. To me they are like Digestive biscuits because they taste as though they are good for you and not really a treat.

Personally I would rather grab an old-fashioned low-sugar Weet-Bix if I was in a rush and munch on that, perhaps with a bit of butter and jam smeared on it. But I can see the appeal of these little packages popped in a bag on the bus or train.

For me, one Weet-Bix is perfect with a cup of tea in the evening.

Highlights

• Just over two teaspoons of sugar per four biscuits.

• 935 kj or 234 calories per four biscuits.

• Contains added fibre.