Fig Roll Shortage Hits Outdoors

A dramatic supply crisis has struck the premier budget outdoors fuel supply the fig roll. The humble pastry-wrapped fruit biccy is a favourite of walkers, climbers and mountain bikers thanks to its balance of fruity sugars and biscuity carbohydrate, but right now the shelves are empty.

If you're to believe the Guardian newspaper, it all comes down to an unfortunate confluence of two unrelated events. On the one hand excessive heat in Anatolia, Turkey has dampened the pollenating ardour of the local wasps leading to a 40 per-cent decrease in fig numbers. On the other hand, figs from Turkey were diagnosed as containing excessive levels of a naturally occuring toxin generated by a natural mould earlier this year.

The end result is that we've eaten all the available fig rolls and there are none whatsoever left in the supply stream and it may be a month or more before they reappear.

Alternatives

Fig rolls contain around 60 calories per biscuit and 8 per-cent fat, which isn't bad. So what's a skint outdoors athlete - ahem - supposed to do for fuel in the mean time?

Specialist Energy Bars Energy bars from the likes of Power Bar, SIS, High Five, Clif and Torq are formulated to contain the ideal balance of carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals and sugars for optimum outdoor performance. Unfortunately they're often either expensive or inedible, sometimes both. Our favourite is the Torq Bar, but for one of those you could have one and a half packets of fig rolls....

General Cereal Bars There are plenty of cereal bar alternatives out there, but check the ingredients carefully. Many of them contain high levels of fat, which you don't want in an outdoor fuel source and lots of sugar which means they'll kick in fast, then fade away. Flapjacks in particular, contain loads of fat, the ones that don't often taste like dried wallpaper paste, so choose carefully.

Chocolate Bars Taste great, but are generally stuffed with quick release sugars. That means a rapid energy high then a fall in blood sugar levels as insulin kicks in. Okay for a rapid energy boost towards the end of a day, but not for regular consumption unless you're prepared to keep knocking them back at 30-minute intervals.

Biscuits Generally the nicer they taste, the more like confectionary they are in nutritional terms, if you must go biscuity, Jaffa Cakes are low in fat and have some protein content so make a good recovery snack. Not happy in warm conditions though where the chocolate melts and the biscuits / cakes fuse together annoyingly.

Fresh Fruit A tricky one - unfortuantely fresh fruit tends to be heavy due to a high fluid content and high levels of fructose can mean another short energy burst. Our favourite is the banana, but beware, the more ripe the banana, the more of the carbohydrate is sugar based, so for slow burn performance, go for the greenish ones, which will also survive better in your pack.

Dried Fruit Drying the fruit concentrates the sugar again, but at least dried fruit is more easily portable and contains fibre and nutrients you won't get, for example, from choccy bars. Raisins and dried apricots are both good for serial snacking.

Rice Pudding No, really, lots of slow burn carbohydrate, but a bit of a pain to cart around. On the other hand, you can opt for a plastic tub of Muller Rice and a tea spoon, just pack the thing carefully.