Harvest Morn, an Aldi brand, offers yogurt and fruit bars as a popular snack. These bars have a detailed ingredient list that includes a mix of core components, sweeteners, fats, and additives. The specific ingredients can vary by flavor, with strawberry being a common example.
The Core Composition: Three Key Elements
A Harvest Morn yogurt and fruit bar typically consists of a fruit filling, a cereal bar base, and a yogurt-flavored coating.
The Fruit-Flavored Filling
The strawberry filling, for instance, provides the fruity taste. It contains ingredients like raisins, currants, glucose-fructose syrup, strawberry purée, sugar, pectin (a gelling agent), glycerol (a humectant), and acidity regulators such as calcium citrate and sodium citrate.
The Cereal Bar Base
This baked layer gives the bar structure. Its ingredients include wheat flour, oat flour, sugar, glucose syrup, inulin, rapeseed oil, palm fat, pasteurised liquid egg, and raising agents (sodium carbonates, diphosphates, ammonium carbonates).
The Yogurt-Flavored Coating
This sweet and creamy layer provides a yogurt-like appearance and taste. It's made with vegetable fats (palm kernel fat, palm fat, coconut fat), sugar, skimmed yogurt powder, whey powder, and lecithin (an emulsifier, often from soya). It's important to note this is a yogurt-flavored coating, not real yogurt.
Comparison: Harvest Morn Yogurt & Fruit Bar vs. Harvest Morn Fruit & Grain Bar
| Feature | Harvest Morn Yogurt & Fruit Bar | Harvest Morn Fruit & Grain Bar (Apple) |
|---|---|---|
| Coating | Yogurt-flavored coating (skimmed yogurt powder, vegetable fats, whey powder). | No yogurt coating; baked finish with a fruit-filled center. |
| Fruit Filling | Strawberry flavor with raisins, currants, and strawberry preparation. | Apple and cinnamon filling with apple purée and raisins. |
| Allergens | Milk, soya, oat, egg, wheat. May contain peanuts and nuts. | Wheat, oat, egg. May contain nuts, peanuts, milk, and soya. |
| Appearance | Creamy white, smooth coating over a textured base. | Baked, soft-biscuit texture with a visible fruit filling. |
| Fat Source | Contains vegetable fats in the yogurt-flavored coating and oils in the base. | Contains sunflower oil and palm fat, but lacks the specific coating fats. |
A Note on Processed Ingredients
Harkening to many convenience snacks, the Harvest Morn yogurt and fruit bar is an ultra-processed food. This is due to components like modified starches, various sugars, vegetable fats, emulsifiers, and flavorings. This classification differentiates it from less processed options.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the ingredients in a Harvest Morn yogurt and fruit bar are a complex mix of processed elements chosen for stability, taste, and texture. The bar's structure includes a fruit-and-raisin filling, a cereal base, and a sweet, yogurt-flavored coating. Understanding these ingredients provides insight into the product's composition and its place among processed foods. For more details, the Open Food Facts entry for Harvest Morn Yogurt and fruit bars offers further information.