My kid's 'fruit' snacks are basically just candy with a picture of a strawberry

So my son had a field trip last month and I was packing his lunch. I grabbed a pouch of those fruit snacks that say 'made with real fruit' and 'good source of vitamin C' on the front. I decided to actually read the tiny print on the back for once. The first ingredient was corn syrup. The second was sugar. The 'real fruit' was listed as 'fruit puree concentrate' way down the list. It had 11 grams of sugar in that little pouch, which is almost three teaspoons. The vitamin C is just added ascorbic acid, it's not coming from the fruit. I felt so dumb for thinking I was giving him a healthy snack. It's just brightly colored sugar gel. Has anyone found a brand that's actually mostly fruit?

4 comments

4 Comments

kai_webb9117d ago

Ugh, I fell for that same trick with the "fruit strips." Checked the label and it was basically flavored glue with sugar. Now I just slice up actual fruit and call it a day.

spencera7717d ago

Man, @kai_webb91, you're so right. I got mad once and looked up how they make those strips, and it's wild. They basically cook the fruit down to a paste so much that all the good fiber bits are gone, leaving just the sugary part. It's like fruit candy in a sneaky wrapper.

angelaw782d ago

Totally used to grab those for my kids thinking it was a healthy snack. Then you see the sugar content and it's basically a gummy bear flattened out. Makes you wonder why they even bother with the fruit picture on the box. Now an apple just seems like less work anyway.

diana_carr6617d ago

Seriously, the marketing on those things should be illegal (it's basically false advertising).