Our lunchbox snack survey

The supermarket shelves are full of convenience snacks to pop in the lunchbox. We were looking for snacks that weren't too high in energy and were low in fat, saturated fat, sugar and sodium.

Our product comparison tables list the products we surveyed and whether they met our criteria (see below).

Twenty-nine were worth recommending - these met our five criteria. But three got the "thumbs down" - they met only one of our criteria. These three (Cadbury Brunch Bar Raisin, Tasti Muffin Bakes Raspberry & Yoghurt Duo and Wheelies) were all too high in energy, fat, saturated fat and sugar. They should be treats only.

Taste ... we leave up to your kid. There's no point having the perfect snack swapped for a chocolate bar or thrown in the bin.

While our survey doesn't cover the whole market, you can use our criteria below to see how other snacks stack up.

Our criteria for lunch box snacks

Energy
We were looking for lunchbox fillers with less than 600 kilojoules per serve. That's about the equivalent of a banana - although a banana will fill your kids up a lot more than other products and give them extra fibre, vitamins and minerals.

Size is everything. Solay Multigrain Crisps, Bluebird Original and Eta Ripples 10-packs only got our energy "thumbs up" because they're small. So don't be tempted to put two in every lunchbox.

Fat
Many products were too high in fat and saturated fat. Biscuits, chips and most crackers didn't get our fat "tick". Cheese products were also high in fat and saturated fat - but they also provide calcium so they can be eaten more regularly.

Sugar
Sugar contains energy but very few nutrients. It also contributes to tooth decay. While a number of snacks contained high levels of sugar, in some cases this came from fruit or lactose (milk sugar). Lactose doesn't have the same adverse affect on teeth.

So we set a higher sugar limit if some of the sugar came from real fruit or lactose - or if the product was 90 percent or more fruit.

Flavoured dairy products (such as yoghurt and milk products) tend to be high in lactose but they're also a good source of calcium.

It also pays to check the ingredients list. Flemings Real Fruit Bars Wild Berry Flavoured contain only 31 percent fruit. The bars are topped up with icing sugar, glucose, vegetable fibre and other ingredients. Annies Wiggles Berryfruit Bars, on the other hand, are 100 percent fruit.

Sodium
Crackers, processed cheese and chips are high-sodium options.

Fibre
We didn't include fibre in our ratings, as manufacturers aren't required to list the fibre content. Other items such as wholegrain bread, fruit and vegetables provide fibre - make sure the lunchbox includes these.

The cost of convenience

In some cases you're paying for the convenience of individually wrapped portions. Take packaged fruit - a 140g pottle of fruit costs $1 or more depending on the brand; but if you put canned fruit in a leak-proof container you'll only pay around 50 to 70 cents per serve. Better still, pack a piece of fresh fruit for around 50 cents.