Well I have to hand it to Mars. Just when you thought that they had cornered the market of all things confectionary, they’ve done it again. They have created a new brand and with it, an inspiring new reason to snack. Forget hunger or sustenance, that’s old school. Now your elevenses can bring you even closer to realising your dreams. That’s right, every bite of the new goodnessKNOWS snack will help you to take ‘a simple step toward being your best and reaching your goals’!!! And all in 4 little squares! Which makes me wonder, what exactly is in those little bite-sized pieces of perfection? And what is behind Mars’ launching a new brand?

Luckily, Mars is letting us into the secret as they launch their new brand in the UK with a £4.6 million marketing campaign and social media presence. goodnessKNOWS snack squares have been marketed as a new, low-calorie snack containing simple, natural ingredients and its branding invites us to ‘try a little goodness’. The snack is targeted at the growing market of snackers who seek out ‘healthier’ choices as consumers have become more aware of the effect of diet on their health. According to the Euromonitor, UK consumers chomp their way through more than five times as much confectionery as the global average. However, health concerns have caused a downward trend in the sales of sweets and chocolate as consumers are switching to savoury snacks and yoghurts. goodnessKNOWS has arrived just in time, then.

But back to the little squares. What about their ingredients and how are they going to help me be my best? It turns out that the goodnessKNOWS snack range has already been available in the US but Mars had to spend 18 months rejigging the recipe to suit UK palates. Contrary to the widely accepted negative stereotype of American eating habits, the US version of goodnessKNOWS was found to be not sweet enough for UK consumers. As you would expect, just a spoonful of sugar (or two or three) to help the little squares go down, did the trick. Now it may seem odd to mention sugar at all as an ingredient when goodnessKNOWS has marketed itself as a healthy snack food. But here is where it all gets slightly suspect.

The snack squares are advertised as containing whole nuts and real fruit with dark chocolate. So far, that sounds like real food and the packaging certainly displays the real thing. The different flavours are shown to contain slices of crunchy, fresh apple, sun ripened peach and fresh berries together with whole nuts and just a curl or two of dark chocolate. But just in case you even doubted whether this snack was good for you, goodnessKNOWS have done the thinking for you with a marketing blurb that invites you to ‘pat yourself on the back’ for choosing it. goodnessKNOWS also awards you a ‘Well done’ for eating something that does not contain any artificial colours, flavours, preservatives or high fructose corn syrup. However, sugar is not really mentioned, not even the extra spoonful, until you take a closer look at the list of actual ingredients.

In fact, each of the snack squares contain sugar within just about every ingredient listed. For example, the Apple, peanut & almond with dark chocolate snack square is advertised as containing ‘Sweet apples. Roasted peanuts and almonds. Dark chocolate’. But take a look at the ingredients listed. The squares contain sweetened dried apples, rice sweetened with raisin juice concentrate (essentially, sugar) and honey plus some toasted oats sweetened with brown sugar and white sugar. In addition, the squares contain brown rice syrup (more sugar), dried cane syrup (same again) and for good measure, some more sugar. All in all, each 34g pack containing 4 little squares comes out at 12g sugar which is 3 tsp. But at 150kcals a go, many people will not think twice about the sugar content. And to be fair, compared to many of the flapjacks, granola bars and paleo snacks on the market heavily promoted as being ‘healthy’, they are certainly not higher in sugar. But they are not a whole lot less, either.

To be clear, I am not saying that there is anything inherently wrong with the little squares, per se. They may even taste good. After all, I like dried fruit and roasted nuts and I choose dark over milk chocolate every time. But it has nothing to do with the cocoa flavanols, which goodnessKNOWS tells me, ‘are the good stuff in dark chocolate’. And this is exactly why I think Mars’ new confectionary brand should sit a little uneasy on its healthy pedestal.

What I find problematic and slightly disingenuousness about goodnessKNOWS is the fact that it is being promoted as a sort of superior snack of wellness rather than as a confectionary. This is not to say that Mars is alone creating a product that targets the growing number of consumers who are health conscious. Manufacturers have flooded the market with ‘healthy’ bars, snack packs and drinks aimed at followers of clean eating, carb-free diets and any number of wellness trends. So why wouldn’t any company not want to profit from products that they are allowed to market as being better and ‘healthier’ than the alternative? The problem is that these products are more than often not nutritionally better than a biscuit and consumers may not realise this. When it comes to goodnessKNOWS, they have also pushed the boundaries a bit beyond their ‘healthy’ claims by tying up value judgements to their products.

Some very clever marketing and down-to-earth, simple language is used to validate the notion, that eating the snack squares will not only make you healthier but be a better person. For example, goodnessKNOWS is described using numerous self-congratulatory phrases and even a little smugness dressed up as pride. Every time you unwrap a goodnessKNOWS, you will not simply be having a quick bite. These snack squares will enable you to ‘take that one small step toward being your best’. If only I had known this earlier…The marketing materials also tell you that by choosing goodnessKNOWS, you will also be giving an emphatic ‘no’ to some ingredients you may not even care about. Does it make it any more nutritious if it is gluten free, not genetically modified or kosher? The truth is, it’s just an upmarket biscuit. It is not going to change you or the world. And it’s certainly not going to make you healthier.

In fact, the last thing that consumers need right now is more encouragement from manufacturers to eat more snacks between meals, especially ones that contain added sugar. There may now be a general awareness among the public of the high rates of obesity in the UK and the role of our diet plays in our health. However, I wonder if we can also say the same for tooth decay? How many people are aware that the UK is also breaking records when it comes to the rising number of tooth extractions carried out and the rate of dental caries, particularly among children? The evidence based truth is that eating snacks between meals that are full of added sugar, aka free sugars, whether it is the ‘natural’ sort such as honey or agave syrup or heavily processed high fructose corn syrup, is not good for our health, contributes to our waistlines and causes tooth decay. Dried fruit is very high in sugar and sticks to our teeth which makes any snack containing them particularly bad for them. However, goodnessKNOWS says that their snack squares can be eaten all in one go or broken up to eat throughout the day, depending on how you feel. Your teeth do not care how you feel and neither does your dentist. These are the kinds of snacks your dentist hates. I don’t quite see Mars using that as a catch phrase, though.

Despite all this, I am sure that goodnessKNOWS will do well in the ever-growing market of health-conscious consumers. After all, there has been a market for products that promise health and wellness since time immemorial. Perhaps the only thing that has changed has been the degree and sophistication of the marketing messages that make us buy the products. Wouldn’t it be refreshing and even revolutionary, for a company to just come out and be honest about their wares? Especially, when it comes to food and drink. In other words, call a pudding a pudding, even if you are claiming that it is made of better stuff. But there is a time and a place for pudding and it is not every so often, throughout the day, as a snack. If you are going to have a pudding, for goodness sake, everybody KNOWS that you should enjoy it with a main meal.

Now if you are going to have a proper snack, why not try a Roasted nut and nectarine buttermilk scone? They make a great breakfast, too.