This vs that: Flaky puff pastries vs filo pastry

Healthy Food Guide takes a look at the differences between flaky puff, reduced-fat flaky puff, and filo pastries.

Filo pastry comes in very fine sheets and we’d spray a little oil between every two sheets before using. The flaky puff pastry comes in 150g sheets. We’ve compared four sheets of filo plus two teaspoons of olive oil with one sheet of the puff pastries; we’ve then divided each of these by four to give an estimate for one serve. If you use pastry top and bottom in pies, you could be using twice the amounts shown.

• The difference in fat content accounts for most of the difference in kilojoules.
• As wheat flour is the main ingredient in each of these pastries, they all add a little protein and some carbs to a meal.

Winner: Filo pastry

Edmonds Flaky Puff Pastry is similar to a homemade flaky pastry — it’s high in both total and saturated fat. The reduced-fat version has half the amount of fat and saturated fat, but filo has little saturated fat, leaving room for some saturated fat in the rest of your meal. While the reduced-fat flaky puff pastry is a lot better than the original, it would be difficult to keep the total saturated fat down to a level we’d be happy with in Healthy Food Guide recipes.