Enter the Dragon Bar

Managing Director of Dragon Foods Yorkshire, Kate Riall

When her children were grumpy at the end of the school day because they were hungry Kate Riall didn’t want to give them junk food.

So she set about creating her own healthy snack.

“I wanted to develop something that was as convenient as a chocolate bar for mums and just as tasty for children,” explains Kate, from Harrogate.

“I found my own children were cranky due to hunger at the end of the school day, and wanting to snack before their after-school clubs.”

And so she came up with the Dragon Bar.

“Dragon Bars are the perfect solution – the children don’t think they are eating something that is good for them and parents have peace of mind that they are eating nutritious food. ”

At 109 calories per bar, Dragon Bars contain fewer calories than a typical chocolate bar but significantly more protein and goodness.

They are so jam-packed with nutrition that, despite weighing the same (35g), they look smaller due to the density – there’s no air or “fillers” to be found in Dragon Bars.

Kate says children’s soft play centres, health clubs and high-end cafés are all eager to take stock of the Dragon Bars, and she is keen to meet her realistic sales targets of 100,000 bars in the first year of production.

Philippa Shackleton, managing director of The Academy Health Club and Spa added: “We’re delighted to be supporting the launch of Dragon Bars at The Academy.

“Health and nutrition go hand in hand, and it is important to encourage good eating habits from a young age.

“We’re sure the Dragon Bars will be very popular with all of our members.”

Kate set up Dragon Foods Yorkshire with the aim of encouraging good eating habits from a young age, and to tackle the issue every parent faces of hungry children who just want to snack on junk food after school.

From concept to creation, the bars are made in Britain as the production is based in the north of England.

The snack bar has a low-glycemic value, being made to release energy slowly, stabilise blood sugar levels and keep children fuller for longer.

It is crammed with healthy and nutritious ingredients such as quinoa, oats, chia seeds, blackcurrants, pumpkin seeds and flax seeds (linseed).

Kate was keen to ensure the bars are tasty, to make it easy for parents to get their children enjoying these health giving foods.

“In the last century the Western diet has become increasingly dominated by refined sweeteners, such as granulated sugar and corn syrup, which have a high-glycemic index and load – both measures of the relative impact the foods have on blood sugar,” says Kate.

She therefore used a mix of brown rice syrup and agave syrup in the bars to give them their sweet taste without the unhealthy sugar rush and subsequent crash.

Kate has welcomed the Government’s decision to provide free school meals to all five-to-seven year old pupils in state schools in England from September 2014. “I am thrilled to see the government is supporting the ethos of teaching healthy habits to children from a young, and boosting their energy levels naturally,”  says Kate.