Healthy Fruit Roll-Ups

I used to love eating fruit roll-ups as a child. Pulling the fruit leather sheets off the wax paper, making shapes and faces and licking my sticky fingers…yum. Even as an 8 year old, I knew these were no replacement for real fruit. Now, over 25 years later, if my kids are with me at the grocery store, I avoid the fruit snack isle like the plague. It is bad enough that the boxes are ordained with Disney Princesses and Action Figures. It is even worse that the front packaging deceives consumers into thinking they are actually healthy “food”. It comes to no surprise that I am not the only one that thinks this is a problem.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) proposed a class action lawsuit charging General Mills, Inc. for misleading consumers about the nutritional and health qualities of fruit snacks, namely Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit by the Foot as well as other similar products. The Center for Science in the Public Interest argues that General Mills Inc. made misleading statements that its products were nutritious, healthful to consume and better than similar fruit snacks.

The front packaging of each of its Fruit products says the following:

·      Fruit flavored snacks

·      Naturally flavored

·      Good source of vitamin C

·      Low number of calories

·      Low fat

·      Gluten free

The lawsuit also addresses the marketing tactics targeting children with various promotional gimmicks to win prizes, directing children to eatplayburn.com and having the Box Top for Education label. CSPI also points out that the fruit snacks contain partially hydrogenated oil, aka trans fats which are known to contribute to cardiovascular diseases.

While we wait to see how the United States District Court in the Northern District of California rules on the case, as consumers, we can take our own action buy purchasing healthier alternatives.

While fresh or plain dried whole fruit is the best choice, there are healthier dried fruit products available. They may lack some of the marketing flair, but have similar texture and taste and are actually made with real fruit. My kids love the Trader Joe’s Organic Fruit Wraps and FruitaBu. These are the most similar in texture to the “fake” corn syrup laden Fruit Roll-ups. The original Stretch Island fruit leathers (Fruitabu are a brand extension of Stretch Island) are another alternative that are more widely available and lower in sugar than Fruitabu and Trader Joe's Fruit Wraps. For those chefs out there you can go above and beyond and make your own.

Before heading to the grocery store, you can look at the table below, which compares the aforementioned brand nutrient profiles:

Nutrition Facts (for one serving size)	Fruit Roll-Ups: Berry Flavored	Trader Joes Organic Fruit Wraps: Apple Raspberry	FruitaBu: Smooshed® Strawberry	Stretch Island: Summer Strawberry	½ cup Strawberries
Calories	50	50	80	45	24
Total Fat (g)	1	0	1.5	0	0.23
Dietary Fiber (g)	0	<1	<1	1	1.5
Sugars (g)	7	11	14	9	3.54
Vitamin C (% Daily Value)	25	4	0	4	74
Iron ((% Daily Value)	0	2	0	0	2
Ingredients	Pears From Concentrate, Corn Syrup, Dried Corn Syrup, Sugar, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Acetylated Mono and Diglycerides, Fruit Pectin, Malic Acid, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), Natural Flavor, Color (Red 40, Yellow 5&6, Blue 1).	Organic apple puree concentrate, organic apple juice concentrate, organic raspberry puree concentrate, citrus pectin, organic elderberry juice concentrate, natural flavor, organic lemon juice concentrate	Apple puree concentrate, apple juice concentrate, white grape juice concentrate, apple powder, strawberry puree concentrate, organic palm fruit oil, citrus pectin, natural strawberry flavor, fruit juice for color, citric acid, sodium citrate, soy lecithin	Apple puree concentrate, pear puree concentrate, strawberry puree, organic natural strawberry flavor, lemon juice concentrate	Strawberries J Fresh strawberries are the clearly the nutrient champions!

Looking strictly at the nutrient facts of the four fruit snacks could trick you into thinking that Fruit Roll-Ups are the best choice; they are the highest in vitamin C and lowest in sugar. However, when you are looking at the nutrition facts panel, don’t forget the read the ingredient list. You can see that in the case of Fruit Roll-Ups the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th ingredients are corn syrup, dried corn syrup, sugar, and partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil respectively. In the Fruit Roll-Up there is no fruit puree, only pear juice concentrate (and these are berry flavored??). I typically buy the Trader Joe's fruit wraps, my kids like them and they are cheaper (49 cents each). While these are a little higher in sugar than the original Stretch Island Fruit Leather, they have a little iron and my kids like them better.