A New York woman recently filed a complaint against General Mills, accusing the company of misleading customers by marketing its Fruit Roll-ups as a healthy snack. It's surprising, not because the food manufacturer was being evasive about its product's nutritional value, but because the woman actually believed the hype. If she had read the ingredients' label carefully, she might have been enlightened.
The woman, however, isn't alone - many parents, on seeing 'fruit' in a product's name, assume it's a healthier option for their children than crisps or biscuits. Like 'naturally flavoured' - what does 'natural' taste like, anyway? - 'fruit flavoured' doesn't mean a great deal, because the flavouring doesn't come entirely from fruit; it'll often be made with chemicals that, when combined, mimic the taste of a fruit. And 'gluten free' is irrelevant because fruit doesn't contain gluten.
If you read the ingredients list on a box of strawberry Fruit Roll-ups, you'll realise they don't actually contain any strawberry. The sweets contain pear juice concentrate (so the manufacturer can say the product is 'made with real fruit'), sweeteners (corn syrup, dried corn syrup and sugar) and partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil - that's the trans-fat blamed for health problems such as heart disease.
When all is said and done, if you want healthy fruit snacks, you must eat fruit - the real stuff.
