But one women-led social enterprise aims to not only provide healthy snack bars to the masses, they also support nutrition programmes for vulnerable children in Malaysia.
“Unlike a lot of the snack bars in the market, ours contain no added sugar and preservatives,” said Athirah Keeflee, co-founder of ‘Eat For Good’, that began operations in September 2020.
According to the 2019 National Health and Morbidity Survey, about one in five Malaysian children under the age of five are stunted – a rather distressing fact considering the staggering amount of edible food waste that ends up in landfills daily.
In the name of better nutrition, ‘Eat For Good’ has pledged to match every purchase of their product with one snack bar donated to a disadvantaged kid.
“So far, we’ve given out about 9,000 ‘goodness bars’,” said the 27-year-old, who has a background in food science.
At present, they have three types of snack bars: ‘Dating Jack’, ‘Nuts For You’ and ‘Kaseh Koko’.
“Dating Jack, which is a combination of jackfruit and cocoa, is our bestseller,” said Athirah, adding that each bar is priced at RM8.50.
These energy bars can also be used as a meal replacement as they contain 9g to 11g of protein, in addition to being high in fibre.
Three additional flavours are to be introduced soon: coffee, strawberry and banana chocolate rice crispies.
“Most energy bars in the market contain glucose syrup, which can be unhealthy if consumed regularly as it is highly processed, besides being loaded with calories and sugar. In contrast, the sweetness of our bars comes from the fruits and dates; all three products are gluten-free as well,” she told FMT.
Although customers are more health-conscious than ever, food labels can be deliberately misleading, and there are even brands that don’t reveal the ingredients despite being labelled as “healthy”.
“We love engaging with our customers and we often stress the importance of reading labels,” she said.
‘Goodness bars’
Based on their research, many underprivileged children lack micronutrients such as calcium.
“So, in addition to dates, oats, honey and salt, our ‘goodness bars’ are fortified with calcium,” she explained.
‘Eat For Good’ has given out “goodness bars” to underprivileged orang asli children in collaboration with charity groups such as 4Them and Zer0Hunger.
In addition, they have also distributed these bars to the children at Buku Jalanan Chow Kit, a community centre that provides education to disadvantaged children in the area.
“At the moment, we are collaborating with a person who’s interested in distributing our ‘goodness bars’ to the orang asli children in Gerik,” she explained, adding that they are looking to collaborate with more individuals and organisations in the future.
From the feedback they’ve received, most of their customers enjoy their energy bars as they aren’t too sweet. “They also said that its chewy texture made them feel quite satiated.”
The main challenge, however, is the relatively short shelf life of the bars.
“Since we don’t use preservatives, our snack bars will generally remain at best quality for about three to four months,” she said, adding that they now make them in smaller batches to minimise wastage.
All of their bars are currently homemade although they plan to manufacture them in a factory someday.
So, if you’re planning to purchase energy bars, why not give ‘Eat For Good’ a try? “Apart from the health benefits, you’re also helping out disadvantaged children. As our tagline says, it’s a ‘snack with a purpose’.”
To purchase ‘Eat For Good’ snack bars, go to their website, Shopee, or by texting 013-6509749. You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram.