Snack bars with fruit references on their packaging have been found to contain minimal amounts of healthy ingredients in a recent Choice review.
The consumer advocacy group has said "healthy-sounding" names and pictures of fruit are tricking consumers into thinking the bars contain real fruit.
Its latest review of 224 cereal, muesli, nut, seed, and raw snack bars found some products were packed with added sugars but masked their contents with references to "natural" ingredients such as fruit and yoghurt.
Choice's Tom Godfrey said the real fruit content in some snack bars was "farcical", with Kellogg's Raspberry & Apple K-Time Twists containing just four per cent raspberry juice concentrate and no raspberry whole fruit.
One of the lowest-ranked snack bars in the review was Aldi's Hillcrest Chewy Muesli Bars in Strawberry & Yoghurt flavour.
While the box depicts fresh strawberries, the fruit content is in fact "strawberry-flavoured fruit pieces" made up of fruit puree concentrates, flavour and a range of additives, Choice said.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Food Standards Australia New Zealand is undertaking a technical evaluation on whether 'added sugars' should be included in ingredients lists.
It will report to the Ministerial Forum in late 2016.
Among other bars found by Choice to be high in sugars, salt, and saturated fats were Coles Nut Bars Choc Coated Nut, Kellogg's LCM's Split Stix Yoghurty, and Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Bars.
Healthier snack bars recommended by Choice included Goodness Superfoods Better for U Cereal Bars Wild Berries and Yoghurt, Uncle Toby's Farmer's Pick Roasted Macadamia & Almond, and Emma & Tom's Chia Bar Cacao.
