I’m excited to review these Nature Valley Soft Oatmeal Rounds Banana Chocolate Chip! Between the common household brand and a breakfast favorite flavor, these are usually a hit.
The NV oatmeal rounds come in two flavors:
Apple Cinnamon
Banana Chocolate Chip
In this article, I’ll be reviewing the Banana Chocolate Chip flavor. Check out this article for a review of the apple cinnamon flavor.
Where to Purchase Nature Valley Soft Oatmeal Rounds Banana Chocolate Chip
These NV oatmeal rounds are actually meant for foodservice, so you will not be able to find them in grocery stores.
You could order these from an online store; however, you’ll receive an entire case of 72 oatmeal rounds.
Packaging
These Nature Valley Soft Oatmeal Rounds Banana Chocolate Chip come frozen. Considering this, it could be a challenge if you have limited frozen space.
I like that the packaging has a clear window so you can see the product, while still being colorful and featuring the Nature Valley branding.
You can serve these at room temperature or warmed. If choosing to serve them warm, the packaging is ovenable film, so you can use an oven or warmer to heat them.
The ovenable packaging is nice so that they can be treated the same as packages of pancakes or waffles.
First Impressions
My “rounds” weren’t perfect circles, so they measured different diameters at different points, but on average, they’re about 3.25” round.
This gives pretty decent plate coverage and is about the size of any other school oatmeal bar that credits for 2 oz grain.
Up close, you can see oats baked into the round, and there are plenty of mini chocolate chips. You can’t see anything banana-y in the bar, like you do in banana bread, but you can smell the banana.
Taste & Texture
The flavor of the Nature Valley Soft Oatmeal Rounds Banana Chocolate Chip is like a dense banana bread, light on the banana.
Heating the round made the banana flavor stand out more and brought out more of the sweetness.
The texture is somewhere between an oatmeal cookie and baked oatmeal. Not as sweet and buttery as a cookie but more compact than baked oatmeal.
The texture became much softer when heated, which made it more difficult to eat. The melted chocolate chips became much messier, which I would imagine would be even worse for a child.
I actually preferred the flavor and texture of the room temperature oatmeal round over the heated version.
They are a tad dry, so you’ll need something to wash it down with.
Nature Valley Soft Oatmeal Rounds Banana Chocolate Chip Ingredients
As a registered dietitian, I read carefully the Nature Valley soft oatmeal round banana chocolate chip ingredients and found some I liked and a few I didn’t.
Whole Grain Oats & Whole Wheat Flour
Whole grain oats and whole wheat flour make up the grain ingredients in the oatmeal round, and since both are whole grain, this is a 100% whole grain product.
The whole grains add fiber and additional vitamins and minerals that refined grains don’t, so I love seeing an option that uses entirely whole grain ingredients.
Sugar
Sugar is the third ingredient listed, which means it’s the third most prevalent ingredient by weight.
Palm Oil
Nutritionally, palm oil falls somewhere between butter or shortening and canola or olive oil. They contain less saturated fat than butter or shortening, but more than canola or olive oil. This makes them more of a semisolid at room temperature rather than a full solid or full liquid.
An additional factor to consider is the growing concern with increased use of palm oil on the environment. To make room for palm oil plantations, there has been a widespread deforestation of tropical rainforests, something that’s a major concern for endangered species and global warming.
The World Wide Fund for Nature advocates for manufacturers to adopt sustainable methods for purchasing palm oil. They also conduct a periodic review of manufacturers’ practices as they pertain to a sustainable way to purchase palm oil and gives them a score.
General Mills, Nature Valley’s parent company, chose not to participate in the last assessment.
Tapioca Syrup
Tapioca syrup is a sweetener that has 15% less calories and sugars as corn syrup, so it has a slightly better nutrient profile. Even still, it is adding extra sugars to the product.
Tapioca syrup is also used as a binder to keep the breakfast round from falling apart.
Nature Valley Soft Oatmeal Rounds Banana Chocolate Chip Nutrition
Sugar
Speaking of sugar, if planning for about 500 calories at breakfast, each round would contribute 11.2% of those calories from added sugar. This is slightly higher than the Dietary Guidelines recommendation of 10% or less calories coming from added sugar.
This is also 1 gram higher than the apple cinnamon flavor.
However, you could balance this by offering less options with added sugar throughout the week.
Dietary Fiber
Each round contributes 4g of dietary fiber, which is a significant amount! This is coming mainly from the whole grain oats and whole wheat flour.
Considering the average child doesn’t consume enough fiber, a product like this can help meet that need.
Protein
Each oatmeal round contains 5g of protein, which may seem surprising. However, oats do contain quite a bit of protein, compared to white flour.
Paired with a milk, students will meet the recommended 10% minimum calories from protein for breakfast.
School Uses
This item credits for 2oz grain in the school meal programs. This makes for a good entrée option for breakfast. Additionally, it could be paired with eggs or a parfait to make a hearty breakfast-for-lunch option.
The item does not meet Smart Snack requirements, so it can only be sold a la carte the day it is served as a reimbursable item and the day after.
A Dietitian’s Recommendation
Truthfully, this is a slightly healthier version of an oatmeal cookie, dressed up as a breakfast bar. I recommend serving this once a cycle, balanced with lower-sugar options.
Procurement Tips for Schools
For school nutrition programs, here is a suggested specification:
Breakfast Bar/Round, oatmeal, apple cinnamon, whole grain, IW
Comparable Products for “or Equal” Consideration
- J&J Snacks # 40402, Readi-Bake BeneFIT Banana Chocolate Chunk Bar
- This one is only 51% WG, compared to 100% for the NV oatmeal round
- Oats are further down on the list, making this less “oatmealy”
- The packaging is NOT ovenable
- Darlington’s 75300, Appleways WG Soft Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars
- It’s also only 51% WG
- This isn’t banana though – be sure to update the spec to just “chocolate chip” if you plan on using this item as an “or equal”
- The packaging is NOT ovenable
- Rich’s #13682, UBR Chocolate Chip Ultimate Breakfast Round IW
- This one also does not contain banana, but otherwise this is a similar product. Just be sure to update your spec to say something like “banana chocolate chip or chocolate chip”
- The added sugar on this one is 18g, which is 14.4% calories from added sugar for a 500 calorie breakfast.
- It’s not listed online, so I can’t guarantee the packaging is ovenable.
- Bake Crafter’s #223e, Break Bar in Chocolate Chip
- This one only credits as 1 oz grain
- It’s also not 100% WG, but a little higher than some others – 56% WG
- The packaging is NOT ovenable
Additional Descriptors to Consider
If you have good reason to narrow down your options, you could add the following descriptor to your specification:
each = 2 oz grain
This will exclude the Bake Crafters item. You would want to include this if you don’t plan on pairing the oatmeal bar/round with anything else. If you DO consider the 1oz grain items and “or equal”, you’ll want to account for this in your bid calculation, as the 1oz bars will be smaller.
ovenable packaging
This eliminates all the other options except the Nature Valley soft oatmeal rounds. You could justify this if you plan on serving the item hot, rather than just warmed.
Summary
The Nature Valley Soft Oatmeal Rounds Banana Chocolate Chip are a hearty breakfast item suitable for school breakfast menus.
For more information on writing product specs, refer to my article Writing Product Specifications.
