Friday 8 April 2022

Not Exactly Filling...

I haven't bought crisps or cereal bars for ages - but for sheer convenience, I planned lunch for the three days of Holiday Club to be very easy - sandwich/crisps/cereal bar/yogurt/piece of fruit.

I was in Iceland, and they had packs of 5 Alpen Light bars for £1 [I knew I had a chocolate bar at home - so that would do the 3 x 2 lunchboxes] I must admit, when I picked it up, it did feel "light"

I opened the box when I got home, and found five foil-wrapped bars


There was quite a lot of space in the box. I'm sure you could have easily got six or seven of the wrapped bars in there.

I opened one foil packet and measured the bar.

approx 9cm x 2cm x 2cm = 36cm³

volume of five bars therefore is 5 x 36 = 180cm³

The outer cardboard box measures 19.5 x 14 x 2.5 = 882.5cm³

That means there is around 700cm³ of space

Or to put it another way - my cereal bars take up around 20% of the box - and the remaining 80% is just air ! 

Maybe they feel that if they packed them in a smaller box it would not look like "good value"?
What a waste of cardboard! Not everybody is diligent about recycling.

I looked at a number of reviews on line, from different stores. The majority were not exactly positive [no flavour, too sticky, taste like cardboard etc] although one person bought twenty bars and said they were "very tasty - struggling not to eat them all at once" which I find rather horrifying - even if they do claim to contain less than half the fat of the 'average' cereal bar. 

I shan't make this mistake again


18 comments:

  1. I've never eaten a cereal bar in my life! Sounds like I'm not missing much

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    Replies
    1. You are a wise woman. Homemade flapjacks are healthier and tastier

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  2. That's.... That's..... That's..... I'm lost for words!

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  3. Eat Natural are our choice. They may be more costly, but when we are out walking we take one of these and an apple and that’s fuel for 15 miles without any need for sandwiches. Money well spent.

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    Replies
    1. That's a good recommendation, thank you

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    2. I like the Eat Natural range too - plenty of choice over contents and all tasty.

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  4. The contents shrink, but, the packaging stays the same! It is meant to deceive the purchaser!

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  5. I assume Iceland is a shop and you didn't go all the way to the country to get a cardboard box with a little bit of food in it! Good for you figuring out the ratio of packaging to product! Excessive packaging and wasted space very much annoy me. I think it's a scam really. Celie

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    Replies
    1. Iceland is a good store which originally just sold frozen foods, but now they sell lots of regular groceries as well. One of the free town car parks is right behind the store

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  6. I do occasionally buy a box of these in the 'Jaffa Cake' flavour.
    I'm dieting (well, on some days I am, then I fall by the wayside, again) and find one of these is enough to give me an instant sweetness hit when I need one. I don't much fancy the idea of the Salted Caramel variety though!

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    Replies
    1. I think I'd prefer one real Jaffa Cake

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  7. I like Asda's own brand chocolate orange cereal bars. 89p for 5, 64 calories each,and no wasted space in the box. I like to have one in my bag in case I'm peckish while I'm out.

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  8. Here I noticed one day that toilet rolls were slightly narrower than before. What a neat way to save a small amount of paper a zillion times over and hope the customers won't notice that they are getting less for the same money!

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    Replies
    1. That is definitely mean, and an in-convenience all round!

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  9. That's shocking!! All that wasted space!! I hope that they work on that!!
    It does annoy me. It's the same when you get a crisp bag full of air!
    Not a big fan of cereal bars to be honest. About s week ago, I admitted to my Mum that I'd never eaten the homemade fruit and nut bars she made us for lunch when I was in Year 1&2- and that my older sister had eaten it for me on the way to school each day. She was v surprised but saying I didn't like them wasn't an option. I just ate a sandwich and apple each day instead!

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