Don’t choose the aniseed sprinkles described here if you need a squeezy bottle for a school lunch: they’re dry sprinkles, not a spread with a dispensing nozzle. If you want to pack bread topped with aniseed sprinkles, choose the variety you prefer and check the label. For children aged 4 to 12, the Netherlands Nutrition Centre recommends choosing mainly foods from the Dutch Wheel of Five for everyday lunches.
If you need to make a sandwich for the lunchbox without sprinkling anything on it, the packaging is crucial. The blue and white aniseed sprinkles described by PLUS are aniseed seeds with a sugar coating. If you’re considering another type of bread topping, check whether it really has a dispensing nozzle.
If you’re choosing aniseed sprinkles for their colour or aniseed flavour, a dry sprinkle may be just the thing. Albert Heijn and PLUS list De Ruijter varieties, including 330 g packs and 270 g packs of crushed aniseed sprinkles. The variety determines what you’re buying, not whether you can dispense it without making a mess.
If you’d like to include a sweet topping without making it the mainstay, consider the rest of the lunchbox too. For children aged 4 to 12, the Netherlands Nutrition Centre recommends choosing mainly breakfast and lunch foods from the Dutch Wheel of Five. For school, it suggests options such as wholemeal bread, vegetables and fruit.
First, decide whether you need a dispensing nozzle. If a dry sprinkle will do, your next choices are what you’d like to include in the lunch and which variety of aniseed sprinkles to buy.
| What to consider | What to check when buying | Who it matters to |
|---|---|---|
| Mess-free dispensing | Check that the packaging really has a dispensing nozzle; dry aniseed sprinkles don’t come in a squeezy bottle. | On a busy morning, I want to top a sandwich without loose sprinkles going everywhere. An estimated 45% of consumers prioritise mess-free dispensing. |
| Everyday lunches | Check the nutritional information for your chosen variety and decide how sweet toppings fit in alongside the other parts of the lunch. | When I regularly pack a lunch, I don’t want to automatically choose sweet sprinkles as the main topping. An estimated 36% of consumers prioritise this when planning lunch. |
| Flavour and variety | Compare the name and contents on the packaging, such as regular or crushed aniseed sprinkles, and read the current label. | For a celebratory lunch, I’m mainly looking for the aniseed flavour and appearance I want. An estimated 19% of consumers put this preference first. |
PLUS describes its blue and white aniseed sprinkles as aniseed seeds with a crunchy sugar coating. So you’re buying a sprinkle, not the built-in dispensing nozzle you may be looking for when preparing a lunchbox.
Make the type of packaging your first consideration. If you need a squeezy bottle, look for another type of bread topping and check its packaging too.
For children aged 4 to 12, the Netherlands Nutrition Centre recommends choosing mainly foods from the Dutch Wheel of Five for breakfast and lunch. So choosing aniseed sprinkles for a special occasion is a different consideration from what you’d usually pack for lunch.
Decide when you’d like to use aniseed sprinkles and check the nutritional information for that specific variety. Consider the other parts of the lunch when you put it together, too.
If someone has a food allergy, the ingredients and allergens on the packaging they’ll actually use are what matter. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority stresses that allergens must be clearly listed on the label.
Read the label on the current packaging before use, even if you’ve looked at the product information online before.
Albert Heijn and PLUS list different De Ruijter aniseed sprinkle varieties, including 330 g packs and 270 g packs of crushed aniseed sprinkles.
No, the aniseed sprinkles described here are dry sprinkles and don’t have a built-in dispensing nozzle. If you need a nozzle to prepare a school lunch, check the packaging of another type of bread topping.
Albert Heijn and PLUS list De Ruijter aniseed sprinkle varieties in 330 g packs and crushed aniseed sprinkles in 270 g packs. When choosing, check the variety name too: the same pack size doesn’t mean it’s the same type of sprinkle.
Think of aniseed sprinkles as a sweet topping, rather than the starting point for the whole lunch. For children aged 4 to 12, the Netherlands Nutrition Centre recommends choosing mainly foods from the Dutch Wheel of Five and suggests options for school such as wholemeal bread, vegetables and fruit.
Read the label on the packaging you’re actually going to use. Check the ingredients and allergens again, particularly if someone has a food allergy or intolerance.
