On 31 March 2026, Food Standards Australia New Zealand quietly abandoned Proposal P1058, the plan to put an "added sugars" line on every nutrition panel in the country. So the panel on a snack bar still tells you one thing about sweetness: total sugars per 100 g, with the sugar from a raisin and the sugar from a syrup added together in one number. That is the number to compare, and the ingredient list is where you find out which kind it is.
The other thing a lunchbox label has to answer is nuts. Most Sydney schools are nut-aware rather than nut-free, which means the decision sits with the parent packing the box and the pack in their hand. So in the list of snacks below we say plainly which ones contain nuts and which carry a "may contain" warning, and we don't call anything nut-free unless the maker does.
The rest is practical: how to read a panel quickly, what freezes well, how to portion a big bag, and the snacks on our shelves with their ingredient lists spelled out.
Reading the label in ten seconds
Start with the ingredient list, not the front of the pack. Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight, so the first two or three tell you what the snack mostly is. The shortest lists are the easiest to judge: Boulder Canyon's kettle chips have three ingredients, Sunseeker's tallow chips three, Ceres' plain rice crackers five.
Then find the sugars line and read it per 100 g, not per serve, because serving sizes vary from pack to pack and per-100 g is the only fair comparison. Since Australian panels show total sugars only, go back to the ingredient list to see where it comes from. Sugar, cane sugar, brown rice syrup, agave syrup, honey, maple and juice concentrate are all sweeteners; raisins, dates and currants are dried fruit that carry their own sugar into the number. "Sugar-free" on the front does not mean unsweetened, since monk fruit and syrups count as sweeteners too. A figure often quoted as a rule of thumb for "low" is 5 g per 100 g, but that is a household convention, not a legal threshold.
Last, the allergen lines. "Contains" is the mandatory declaration and lists what is in the recipe. "May contain" or "processed on equipment that handles" is a voluntary precautionary statement about cross-contact. For a child with an allergy, both matter.
Nut-aware, not nut-free
The NSW Department of Education says schools must not use peanuts, tree nuts or nut products in curriculum or extracurricular activities, but a blanket ban on nuts in lunchboxes is not required, and schools are advised not to describe themselves as nut-free. Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia takes the same line: it recommends an "allergy aware" approach over food bans, partly because bans give a false sense of security and partly because the serious allergies in a classroom may be to milk, egg or wheat rather than nuts.
So the practical rule is: follow your own school's policy, read the pack every time (recipes change), and keep the nut-based snacks for home and after school. In the list below, anything with nuts in the recipe is marked contains nuts at the start of its entry.
The snacks on our shelves
Ceres Organics (the full range) began in 1982 as New Zealand's first organic co-op, run out of Juliet Lamont's garage in Mt Wellington, Auckland, with Noel Josephson; it is now a BioGro-certified organic importer and brand and a B Corp. The Pea Chips Salted are 50 per cent pea with corn and sunflower oil, made in New Zealand, 0.7 g sugar per 100 g, vegan, and marked "may contain gluten, wheat, sesame, soy". The plain sea salt rice cracker in the range is five organic ingredients, four rices and salt, made in Thailand, 0 g sugar per 100 g, processed on equipment that handles soy, sesame and milk; we stock the Brown Rice Crackers Original and the Rice Cakes with Quinoa, so check the pack for their exact lines. The Oaty Bars Berry are five 20 g bars of raisins, oats (39%), sunflower oil, chia, freeze-dried raspberry and agave syrup, 24 g sugar per 100 g or 4.8 g per bar, most of it from the raisins. They contain gluten, have no nut ingredients, and are processed on equipment that handles tree nuts, milk, soy and wheat. There is a Banana version, and the Puffed Stars Cheese (dairy) for the savoury child.
Boulder Canyon (the full range) was founded in 1994 by brothers John and Mark Maggio in Boulder, Colorado, and is now part of Utz Brands. The chips are kettle-cooked in small batches. The Olive Oil Sea Salt is potatoes, olive oil and sea salt; the Avocado Oil Sea Salt is potatoes, avocado oil and sea salt, and is certified gluten-free. Neither has nut ingredients, though we could not find a cross-contact statement online. The flavoured varieties are a different story: Jalapeno Cheddar contains dairy, and the Malt Vinegar needs a check for barley malt.
Sunseeker Snacks is made in Byron Bay in a dedicated facility, hand-cooked slowly at low temperatures, with nitrogen-flushed packs that keep for about three months. The Beef Tallow Potato Chips are three certified-organic ingredients: potatoes, grass-fed and finished beef tallow, and Celtic sea salt. Tallow is rendered beef fat, so these are not vegetarian. The business itself is not yet certified organic, only its ingredients. No nut ingredients. $11.75 for 140 g, which is a lot of lunchboxes if you decant.
Chief (the full range) is a Sydney company started by Justin Babet, Libby Babet, Brock Hatton and Veronika Larisova, whose beef bars took about seven years to develop. Minced topside and brisket from OBE Organic in Queensland's Channel Country is mixed with dried fruit and spices, extruded and slow-dried biltong-style, then sealed in oxygen-free packs that give around ten months without preservatives. The Organic Beef Bar Traditional is 80 per cent organic grass-fed beef with amaranth flour, dried currants, coconut aminos, vinegar, salt and spices, with no nuts, dairy or gluten in the ingredients and no sugar or syrup in the list, though the currants bring some. The Organic Biltong Traditional is 93 per cent beef with coconut aminos, vinegar, salt, cumin, nutmeg and pepper, no garlic or onion, and certified gluten-free. Both are marketed to adults, so check your school's rules on meat snacks before they go in a box.
Nature's Path (the full range) is a family-owned Canadian company founded in 1985 by Arran and Ratana Stephens, which opened North America's first organic cereal plant in 1989 and launched its EnviroKidz line in 2000. Gorilla Munch is four ingredients, organic wholegrain corn meal, corn meal, cane sugar and sea salt, USDA Organic, certified gluten-free and vegan, and made in a facility that uses tree nuts, peanuts and soy. Take the sugar figure from the pack, since it isn't on our listing. The Crispy Rice and Heritage Flakes sit beside it and work dry in a small tub.
Georgia's Natural (the full range) juices are grown, cold-pressed and bottled in the Republic of Georgia, the country, not the American state. The Organic Pomegranate is 100 per cent pomegranate juice, not from concentrate, with no added sugar, water or preservatives, and the Sour Cherry and Pure Blueberry are the same idea. They keep in the pantry until opened, then in the fridge for a few days, and want a shake because of natural sediment. Remember that 100 per cent juice is still mostly fruit sugar, so a small serve, around 125 ml, or a splash diluted with water, suits a lunchbox better than a full bottle.
Pana Organic makes the Cherry Coconut & Dark Choc Mini Bars, five 20 g bars of coconut (39%), brown rice syrup, cacao, cherry ripple and dark chocolate, ACO-certified organic, vegan and gluten-free, made in Coburg, Melbourne. They carry a "may contain peanut, sesame and tree nuts" warning, so they are a home snack for a child with a nut allergy in the class.
Contains nuts. No Grainer (the full range) is the Melbourne bakery run by sisters Jo and Sally Godfrey, and everything is built on almond flour with coconut and chia, bound with psyllium and no gums. The Sesame Crackers are almond flour, apple cider vinegar, black and white sesame, coconut oil, psyllium, golden flaxseed, tapioca flour, baking powder, nutritional yeast and salt, vegan, and contain almond and sesame. The Hemp Crackers, Cranberry Cookie Bites, Almond Pecan Maple Cookies and Sweet Potato Wraps are all almond-based too; the cookie ingredient lists aren't published online, so read the pack. These are after-school snacks, not for a nut-aware classroom.
Contains nuts. Loco Love's Hazelnut Chocolate 30 g is the single-bar size of the Byron Bay truffle bar, and like the rest of that range it contains tree nuts and may contain traces of milk. Home only.
Freezer and portioning
The freezer does two jobs for a lunchbox. It lets you bake once and pack for a month, and a frozen item packed at 7 am thaws by the lunch bell while keeping the rest of the box cool. Muffins, pikelets, scrolls, slices, fritters and frittata all freeze well, as do sandwiches and seed-based bliss balls for a nut-aware box. Freeze on a tray first so nothing sticks, then move to an airtight container; about three months is the usual working limit.
For packaged snacks, use the maker's serving size as the guide: 20 g for a Ceres oat bar or a Pana mini, 40 g for a Chief beef bar. Big bags of chips, 140 to 148 g, go a long way if you decant them the night you open them; 20 to 30 g a serve is a fair household rule, and the rest stays crisp in a sealed jar.
Questions people ask
Are schools in Australia nut-free?
Mostly they are allergy-aware or nut-aware. In NSW a ban is optional, decided by the school and its community, and schools are advised not to claim to be nut-free. Ask your school.
What does "may contain nuts" actually mean?
It is a voluntary statement that the product was made where nuts are handled, so cross-contact is possible. For a child with a nut allergy, treat it as a real risk, not fine print.
Does Australia list added sugars on the label?
No. Panels show total sugars per 100 g only; the added-sugars proposal was abandoned in March 2026. Read the ingredient list to see whether the sugar is from fruit or from a sweetener.
Is beef tallow a seed oil?
No. Tallow is rendered beef fat, an animal fat. Sunseeker's chips are cooked in it, which is why they aren't vegetarian, while Boulder Canyon uses olive or avocado oil.
Are pea chips better than potato chips?
They are different, not better. Pea chips are half pea with corn and sunflower oil and a seasoning mix; kettle chips are potato, one oil and salt. Compare the ingredient lists and the per-100 g sugars and sodium and pick the one your child will eat.
Everything above can be ordered online for Sydney delivery, or picked up in store at Leichhardt and Crows Nest on the way home from school.
