Are Marie biscuits as healthy as they claim to be?

For most of us Indians, a cup of chai is incomplete without its compulsory partner – the infamous Marie biscuits.

Way back in 1874, London-based bakery Peek Freans created the Marie biscuit to commemorate the marriage of the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia to the Duke of Edinburgh. Since then, Freans’s creation has become a favourite munchie the world over and in India, it’s almost synonymous with tea time.

VOICE recently shortlisted 10 Marie biscuit brands – Bonn, Anmol, Mc Vitie’s, Cremica, Britannia, Sunfeast, Parle, Patanjali, Priyagold and Divss – and found out that the top performers in all the categories tested were Bonn, Anmol, McVitie’s, Cremica and Britannia. The testings rated Bonn to be the the most value for money brand and it also has the most amount of fibre in it. As so many Marie biscuit ads have told you, a high-fibre diet offers many health benefits and while these biscuits may not be the most efficient means of getting the best of fibre, Bonn is a healthier choice than many competitors.

The tests are also done keeping in mind the claims of nutritional information that the brands declare on their packets. While testing for the sugar content in all the brands, guess who says there’s more sugar in their biscuits than is actually there? Patanjanli. Also, the net weight of the packet was also less than the declared value. Looks like Baba Ramdev’s ‘Prakriti ka Ashirvad’ is a bit lightweight.

Divss’s has the least amount of fat in it. However the carbohydrate percentage in all the brands ranged in between 80 – 85 gm/100 gm, which were all above the declared values. Apart from this, the panellists also judged the samples on these parameters: colour and appearance, flavour/odour, consistency, taste, and aftertaste feeling − which collectively come under the category of sensory attributes. The average score for each parameter was taken into consideration to arrive at the final score for each brand. McVitie’s topped in the overall sensory scores, followed by Britannia, Parle, and Bonn.