Written by Catherine Saxelby
on Wednesday, 02 May 2018.
Tagged: fibre, health, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, healthy snacks, nutrition, review, whole grain
Launched in mid-2017, the Messy Monkeys range is a range of snack foods suitable for children. They claim to be lunch box friendly (so no nuts), gluten-free and good for them.
You’ve probably noticed the first in this series at your local supermarket. They are the little Messy Monkeys packs of whole grain snack bites. These snacks made the finalist list in the children’s nutrition range of the World Innovation Awards 2018 in the UK.
This post has been sponsored by Freedom Foods.
Recently they’ve added some new bars and air-popped corn in individual packs to the healthy Messy Monkeys product range. So how do these stack up? And are they a wholesome snack you can pop into your child’s lunch box or offer to them after school?
Note: we are not giving these a Rating and Apples as we usually do as they are such different products. One is a fruit-based bar, one is a popcorn snack in a pack, which are at complete ends of the spectrum. Both however are kid-friendly snacks which are made with nutrition in mind. Refreshingly nice!
We taste-tested two new variants: Strawberry and Apple, as well as Mango and Apple. Our taste-team liked these for two main reasons:
Here is the list of ingredients in the Strawberry and Apple Bar:
Dried fruit (44%) (apple 25%, raisins [raisins, sunflower oil], strawberries 2.6%), soluble corn fibre, navy bean flour, pepitas, canola oil. |
My hunch is that the soluble corn fibre helps with binding the ingredients as well as boosting the fibre content. This has been confirmed by Freedom Foods.
The bars are lovely to bite into. They have a good texture and held their shape, without crumbling everywhere as many others do. I ate one early one morning after arriving back from overseas when the cupboards were bare – they were delicious even though I’m not the target market (a school-aged child).
Note: I have found myself popping one in my handbag to eat later. I find them super-handy and perfect for a handbag or backpack.
The packaging is easy to open, which is important for little hands in the playground. I loved the cute drawings of the faces of the monkeys on the outers. This would certainly be fun for kids too – and add to their appeal.
Made in Australia - which is good as it means jobs - but from imported ingredients - which is not so good.
Serve size: 20 g, 1 bar
Component |
Per bar | Per 100 g |
Energy kJ/Cal | 282/67 | 1410/337 |
Protein, g | 1.4 | 6.9 |
Fat Total, g | 1.8 | 8.8 |
Carbohydrate, g | 9.2 | 45.8 |
Sugars, g | 6.7 | 33.5 |
Dietary fibre, g | 4.7 | 23.4 |
Sodium, mg | 8 | 38 |
Source: from side of pack
Overall the Mango variant is similar to the Strawberry one both in nutrition and ease of use. We prefer the Strawberry flavour but you may opt for a Mango taste for a change. Its ingredients are:
Dried fruit (44%) (apple 25%, raisins [raisins, sunflower oil], mango 10 %), soluble corn fibre, navy bean flour, sunflower seeds, canola oil. |
I’m not normally a fan of popped corn but as far as healthy snacks go, these packets of ready-to-eat popcorn are just about perfect. You get 10 small, individual packs of popped corn within a multi-pack bag. One variant is the usual popcorn with a little dash of salt, while the second comes with a dash of sugar in the Sweet Salty Popcorn.
They are air-popped so you get a decent volume for a kid-friendly snack, even though each pack weighs only 13 grams.
Yes, you can pop corn kernels yourself, but will you? And once you do this, you’ll end up with a huge bucket which tastes nice fresh and hot but you’ll have to bag it for later. And how will it stay fresh? I have an electric corn popper that’s fun to watch but I only drag it out when visitors come. Truly.
Here is the list of ingredients in the Lightly Salted Popcorn:
Popcorn, canola oil, sea salt. |
There is added sugar (8 per cent) but these snacks taste barely sweet and compare well with other salty-sweet snacks. Here is the list of ingredients in the Lightly Sweet and Salty Popcorn:
Popcorn, canola oil, raw sugar, sea salt. |
Good to read that they’re made in Australia from 100 per cent Aussie corn and ingredients. That’s top news.
Like me, your kids will love the cute illustrations on the packaging.
Both new Messy Monkeys products are winners from a perspective of nutrition as well as taste and convenience.
In an ideal world, we’d make all of our own foods to pack into our children’s lunch boxes. However, busy mums need convenient snacks for their school-age kids. These ones fit the bill being free of nuts (important for schools) and gluten as well as being whole grain (popcorn) and smallish in size - one of my big themes for nutrition. I’d definitely buy the bars again for their good taste, nutrition benefits, small and convenient size. You'll find the Messy Monkey Snack bars in the health food aisle, not the snack food aisle, at the supermarket. This is because their nutritional profile is better than fruit straps and similar fruit products.
Thanks to Gordana, Dave, Guy, Mary and Susan for being part of the taste-testing team.
Catherine Saxelby has the answers! She is an accredited nutritionist, blogger and award-winning author. Her award-winning book My Nutritionary will help you cut through the jargon. Do you know your MCTs from your LCTs? How about sterols from stanols? What’s the difference between glucose and dextrose? Or probiotics and prebiotics? What additive is number 330? How safe is acesulfame K? If you find yourself confused by food labels, grab your copy of Catherine Saxelby’s comprehensive guide My Nutritionary NOW!
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