Product Snapshot - Bulla Cottage Cheese with crackers

I love this new mini-tub of plain cottage cheese smartly/cleverly packed with a top container of water crackers. Easy to carry, small and compact, it has only 571 kilojoules (137 Calories) per pack but claims “Less than 160 Calories per serve” on the front of the label, for reasons I’m not sure of. Is 160 some magic cut-off number for a snack? 160 calories is equal to 672 kilojoules which is OVER the suggested 600 kilojoule cut-off for a small healthy snack in the official Australian Guide to Health Eating.

No matter. It was delicious (exactly the same as the regular cottage cheese you buy at the dairy case) and most importantly, it satisfied me. No fuss, no slicing or packing.

The figures:

You get a small tub 100 grams of cottage cheese - 3.3% fat - with 5 plain water crackers to dunk into. The crackers were crisp and exactly the same as you’d buy to team with cheese on a cheese platter.

Yes they could have been wholegrain but not all my carbs HAVE to be ‘perfect’ and these were a small serve. In fact, I had to load up my last cracker as I would otherwise still have had cheese left over in the pot.

Salt (sodium) was on my radar. At 340 mg per snack, it’s not high but it’s not low either.

With 92 mg of calcium in the tub, this gives me 10 per cent of my day's recommended intake - which is OK.

Price: $2.50 (Coles)

PROs

• compact and handy
• fuss-free
• portion-sized
• only 137 Calories
• a satisfying and filling snack
• source of calcium for strong bones

CONs

• more packaging that you throw away
• could have less salt
• refined carb biscuits.