Throughout the decades, food, nutrition and opinions have greatly improved through education and the accessibility of information via the Internet and social media.
However, for us as 90s children and our parents’ generation, food choices were highly influenced by television advertising and supermarket ranges.
This comes from a time when Nutella was promoted as a “healthy” spread, using dodgy marketing techniques.
Just a warning now for the ‘fat fuck health police’, this article is full of sugary shit that tasted amazing.
It was not uncommon to have your lunchbox filled with sugary and salty snacks growing up in the 90s.

In 1995, it was reported that a typical children’s lunch in Australia consisted of a sandwich, a packet of chips, lollies, and fruit. We will focus on some of the snacks you would get in the 1990s.

Space Food Sticks

Space Food Sticks started in Australia in 1971 under the White Wings label and continued to be made by White Wings until Nestle acquired the brand and snack in the late 1990s. Space Food Sticks were gone by the 1980s in the USA; however, they continued well into the 90s and ended in 2014 in Australia.
They had a unique taste and texture, similar to some modern protein bars. They were also hard but chewy (again, similar to modern protein Quest bars). In the 1990s, they came in two flavours, the favourite being Chocolate, but many people were also fans of the Caramel flavour, which was discontinued in the 2000s. Space Food Sticks and their recipe were not actually used by the 1970s Space Programs; just the recipe was influenced by 1970s recipes, and astronauts were not eating Space Food Sticks in space in the 90s. Nestle branded Space Food Sticks under the Nestle Starz brand in the 2000s alongside Dunkaroos.

Dunkaroo’s

Launched in the mid-90s by Uncle Tobys, this snack was inspired by a Betty Crocker kids snack from the USA (that still exists today). It consisted of small kangaroo biscuits dipped in multiple flavour spreads. The original Australian version improved on the American version, however, and included a second dip of small muesli bits to dip the biscuit into after putting it into the spread.
There were four original flavours in the mid-1990s: vanilla, strawberry, banana, and chocolate hazelnut.
The parent company of Uncle Toby’s switched the labeling (Goodman Fielder at the time), eventually changing it to Bluebird Foods and removing the third dip in the late 90s (Bluebird’s Dunkaroos). Nestle acquired the Uncle Tobys brand from its acquisition of Goodman Fielder, and many 2000’s kids will remember it rebranded under the Nestle Starz brand.
By the 2000’s, most flavours had been discontinued, with only Chocolate Hazelnut surviving. I don’t remember getting Dunkaroo’s very often, they were an expensive premium option from Uncle Tobys growing up in the 90s.

Uncle Tobys Fruity Metres

No one forgot Roll-Ups growing up in Australia, which still exists today. But imagine a huge, long, giant roll-up in unique flavours, and that’s what Fruity Metres were. Fruity Meters came in four flavours: Tropical, Apple, and Strawberry. They were longer and more fun to play with as a child vs your standard Roll Up, however, they were a premium and more expensive option vs Uncle Tobys standard range. Each metre of ‘Fruit’ came layered between non-stick plastic paper. Launched in 1996 as a newer, premium version of Roll Ups, they never stuck around and were gone within a few years, but were still around to at least 1998.

Milky Way Spread

Nutella was essential for many 90s children’s growing up; however, an alternative was launched in the mid-90s. Milk Way Spread in Australia was not as intense and was fluffier than Nutella, as mentioned in this Aussie newspaper ad. Milky Way Spread would join a common school sandwich line up, along side the likes of jam, peanut butter and Nutella.

In-Cred-I-Bites / Incredibites

Incredibites were launched in 1996, and were still available as late as 1998. Originally under the Uncle Tobys brand, it was rebranded under the BlueBird brand, as the parent company Goodman Fielder was trying to sell off its brands it owned in the early 2000s, similar to Dunkaroos that was also rebranded under Blue Bird before Nestle.
During its launch, Incredibites was described as a “snack-sized cereal shell with flavoured cream inside it.” They came in four flavours: Chocolate Hazelnut, Vanilla, Wildberry, and Strawberry. Choc Hazelnut seems to be a fan favourite.

Ovalteenies

You could get these from the supermarket, but it wasn’t uncommon for them to be sold at canteens or tuckshops, either. For a nation raised on Milo, it makes you wonder why Nestle never made these, either.
Small compacted pills of Ovaltine powder, perfect for snacking on the go without milk. What could go wrong? Ovalteenies still exist today.

Nutella

If you were lucky like me, you could buy mini tubs of Nutella straight from your canteen or tuckshop and eat that amazing shit straight! Nutella was essential to most 90s kids growing up, and saw an explosion in popularity. Like jam in the 90s, it wasn’t uncommon to have licensed jars, and Nutella was often found in sandwiches in lunchboxes alongside jam, peanut butter or Vegemite.
Ferrro used some sneaky marketing tactics in Australia. It focused on hazelnuts as its primary ingredient (which they were not) and its “Low GI” properties, marketing them almost as a healthy treat, which it was not. It often used mums in its advertising too.

Uncle Tobys Wrapps

Uncle Tobys had the muesli bar market covered in the 90s. An essential childhood snack for many kids going to school, the geniuses over at Uncle Tobys came up with a way to make Muesli bars even unhealthier and full of sugar, coat them in Chocolate!
Wrapps had chocolate bar inspired flavours too, including Cherry and Coconut and Honey Comb, and they tasted fucking amazing! Yoghurt covered versions also existed in the early 90s.

Uncle Toby’s Fruit Snacks

Let us be honest, these were just sultana balls covered in sugar.
They were ‘Yoghurt-covered’ balls of Sultanas that came in Banana, Vanilla and Strawberry flavours. By the late 90s they were deleted however. They had their fans, and it was not uncommon to see children eating them in the playground in the 90s.

Muesli Bars

The market leader was Uncle Tobys, however there was also private Homebrand versions made by every supermarket, and it was not uncommon to see Muesli Bars in most kids lunch boxes in Australia, sometimes Uncle Tobys, sometimes No Frills, BiLo, Homebrand or Farmland brand.
Forgotten flavours from the 90s, including the amazing Apricot flavour, and my favourite, Peanut Butter, were deleted during the Kraft 96 Peanut Butter scandal.
Uncle Toby variations often came in “Chewy” or “Crunchy” versions.
The yoghurt-covered versions had the full bar covered, like today, and there was also a fruit-like rollup-covered version, my personal favourite.
Chocolate Chip Muesli Bars were the most popular however.

Fruit Bars

Various companies made dried Fruit bars through out the 90s and 2000s, often made of dried fruit combined with sugar, their nutritional value was always questionable, and how much fruit it technically contained, but damn they tasted soooooo good, and still do today. Apricot was always GOAT flavour.

Bisc& M&Ms, Twix, Milkyway and Mars

An idea stolen from overseas that is still available today internationally, in the early 2000s, Mars Australia made biscuit versions combining their top chocolate bars, and there was something magical about eating the combined taste of a biscuit with caramel and chocolate topping, or M&MS on chocolate and a biscuit.

Mamee/JJ Noodle Snacks

Maggi dominated the 2 Minute, Cook it yourself Aussie Noodle market, but someone decided it was a great idea just to send kids to school and eat them straight from the pack. Mamee is a big brand from Asia, and JJ’s was quite a popular early brand in Australia. Noodle Snacks still exist to this day.

Kraft Dig Its

Kraft Dig Its were introduced in 1995, Kraft even won an award for “New Product Development” that year. The 1995 ad was very memorable, starring a Temu knock-off version of Bart Simpson, and a parody product “Brocoli Biscuits”, it also had plenty of mid-90s attitude.
The product was similar to Le Snack, except it contained a Bread Stick instead of a Cracker and featured both sweet and savoury dips.
There were six flavours, that included Peanut Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Pizza Cheese, Hazelnut Chocolate and Plain Cheese.

Arnotts Nik Nax

So you had Shapes growing up, or maybe ‘In A Biscuit’, but did you have Arnotts Nik Nax? Think something similar to Shapes, but with more intense flavour and flavours more closely resembling chips at the time. Nik Nax were god-tier biscuits and amazing to have for recess. The Salt and Vinegar were intense on a biscuit. Flavours included Plain, Salt and Vinegar, BBQ, cheese, and Onion. Early 90s flavours included Spicy Chicken, too.

Arnotts GoldFish

Arnotts Australia made a dupe of the popular North American snack Goldfish in 1999, and it was fucking amazing. They went all out on the flavouring, which contained way more flavour than Shapes.
Like Nik Nax biscuits, flavours were more like chips and included Salt and Vinegar, Tomato, Chicken, BBQ and Cheese. Arnotts, rather than put them with the biscuits, put them in the chip section of supermarkets.

Lanes “In A Biscuit”

In A Biscuit has recently made a comeback, but in the 90s there were so many more flavours and they could compete with Shapes in terms of flavour and variety. Favourites included Chicken In a Biscuit and Dixie Drumsticks (both made a comeback), but the best flavour went to Crispy Potato. Sadly, all the other exciting flavours of In A Biscuit have never made a comeback ever since Nabisco took over Lanes in Australia (and owns the international rights).

Arnotts Shapes

For whatever reason, a savoury salty snack loaded with fat was a go to for many kids growing up in the 90s in Australia, and a standard go to was Arnotts Shapes. Shapes never tasted the same ever since Arnotts changed the recipe in April 2016, when changing it to baking the seasoning into the biscuit, however when then reverted back the the “old” recipes in October 2016,(due to social media backlash) they just never tasted the same. It was always a highlight finding a pack of Shapes in your lunchbox as a kid however.

Kraft Cheese Stick

Kraft Cheese Sticks were basically just soft chedar cheese spread, wrapped in plastic with metal tie at the end, but I freaking loved eating one of these as kid. Wrapped for convenience and easy to stick in a lunchbox, they also did not require refrigeration, making them great for an Aussie lunchbox.

Bega Stringers

You either loved Bega Stringers, or hated them. They were a hard, firm cheese stick introduced in the late 90s, resembling more of a Mozzarella. However, the novelty and gimmick behind Stringers was that you could peel strings of cheese off the stick and eat them. I remember some kids referring to it as fake plastic cheese growing up (just as they do with Singles), but Bega Stringers still exist.

Custard (Danny, Yogo, Snak Pack)

With dairy as a food group, alongside calcium, being pushed hard in marketing for children in Australia, and what better way to get kids to eat more dairy than to add a fuck ton of sugar to it!
The big national ones were Yogo (WA had its own version!) and Danny, because Danny tastes great! There were also many smaller state-specific custard brands, especially in the early 90s before the dairy industry was nationalised in Australia.
Yogo had the best marketing behind it, especially the claymation ads that made it seem so cool. However, Danny was thicker and of a higher quality custard, resembling today’s Paul’s Extra Thick range. Yogo still exists today in Chocolate only.
For WA kids, there was an amazing Brownes Dirt Yogo, and many kids across Australia would remember the fancy Double Deckers of mixed flavours. The other fancy one was Yo Go Gorrilla Mix, which had a lot more varieties back in the 90s. The great thing about the 1980s, 90s, and 2000s was the variety of custard flavours, from Banana and strawberry to Chocolate combos such as Choc-Caramel. The mid-90s saw Danone make a special Sprinkle version of their custard, and the late 90s also saw Nestle enter the market with a Nesquik version of custard.
Many kids had their brand loyalties to a custard. Also, who could forget Snack Packs, which did not need refrigeration, made by Fosters Clark, that is still also available today in limited flavours.

Petit Miam (original Fromage Frais 90s version)

Petit Miam—it’s French for Yum! Petit Miam as a brand still exists today, but it is just standard kids’ yoghurt in a pouch. However, in the 90s, it was Fromage Frais, a more airy and lighter yoghurt, and Petit Miam was kind of like a starter kit for children to get into Yoghurt, being light, smooth, and without bits of fruit in it. Strawberry was also a favourite, but a cult classic was the apricot flavour for many kids.

Yoplait Go Gurt

Rip their heads off and suck their guts out! Another starter yoghurt kit for kids, it was flavoured yoghurt in single serve tubs with no chunks of fruit. The advertising was great and the tag line caught your attention. They were also great to freeze.

Weston/Arnotts Wagon Wheels

For some odd reason, in my childhood, I believed Wagon Wheels were made by both Weston and Arnotts, despite me always calling them Weston’s Wagon Wheels growing up. Arnotts only took over Westons and its Wagon Wheel brand in 2003, after I finished school, so there is some weird Mandella effect there, as I thought it happened before this. I often had mini ones added to my lunchbox, or sometimes the giant single-serve versions. Wagon Wheels still exist under Arnotts, consisting of a compound chocolate coating (something many Aussie brands used back in the day), two plain biscuits and jam and marshmallow in the middle.

Uncle Tobys Roll Ups

In 1990, Uncle Tobys made a dupe of an old North American product and introduced Aussies to Roll-Ups. It was considered one of the best new products in Australia in 1990. It came in as number 4 in a Survey in a 1990 FoodWeek magazine(alongside Pert 2 in 1 Shampoo and Conditioner, Quickshots, Fruche and Gold and Canola Dairy Spread). The Aussie 90s Roll Up slogan was “Real Fruit, Flat Out”, which misled consumers thinking the mostly sugar product was made from real fruit, and in 2006, the ACCC forced Uncle Tobys to stop using this slogan or feature any advertising showing actual fruit being flattened. Let’s face it, Roll Ups were always lollies, even in the 90s, and if your parents let you have them, you were lucky, because mine didn’t due to the price and sugary they were. But on the odd occasion, I got a Roll Up, I thought it was one of the coolest and one of the best recess snacks ever. Later in the 90s Uncle Tobys started printing licensed pictures on Roll Ups, most notably Rugrats.
To this day, despite being nutritionally terrible, Aussie children enjoy it for recess, as a little/big lunch, or as a snack.

Uncle Tobys Le Snack

Le Snak is a snack enjoyed by people of all ages. It consists of cream cheese and crackers. It is a successful snack that lives on today. It was a relatively new product introduced in 1988. Deleted flavours includ Cheese and Bacon and French Onion in the 1990s, and a dodgy Homebrand versions with less cheese and questionable crackers also existed in the 1990s.

Chips
Chips were the most popular snack in your lunchbox and canteen back in the 90s. What else do we have to say? Home brands such as Bi-Lo Brand and Franklins No Frills were some of the best-tasting chips on the market! Ruffles were an amazing thin, crinkle-cut chip!
Then you had all your classics around today, such as Smiths, Twisties, Toobs, Burger Rings, CCS, Doritos, Thins, etc.
You could look across the school yard and see hundreds of your peers eating chips at recess.
The mid-90s Tazo craze did not help either.

Arnotts Tiny Teddies

Arnotts introduced Tiny Teddies in 1991, and they instantly proved popular with children—and still are today. In the 1990s, there were three flavours: Honey, Chocolate, and Banana. In the 2000s, Arnotts even took on Dunkaroos with Tiny Teddy Dippers!

Kelloggs LCMS

Kelloggs LCMS launched in the late 90s, replacing the failed Kelloggs Rice Krispie Treats. There was a Rice Bubbles (flavoured with marshmallow) and Coco Pop version. The initial slogan was, “Oldies just don’t get them.” LCMS lives on to this day. Fun fact: The letters LCMS don’t actually mean anything.

Sanitarium Fruity Bix Bar

Based on a bar version of the 90s cereal Fruity Bix, a more child-friendly sugary version of WeetBix, Sanitarium decided to have a crack at the breakfast and recess market in the mid-90s based on the cereal product.
They were basically a block of Fruity Bix covered in a yoghurt-like coating. They were introduced in 1996 and were still available as late as 2000.
You just had to be careful while eating them, and not to choke on how dry they were!
Flavours included Fruit and Nut, Strawberry, Apricot and Wild Berry.