A fruit snack is a processed food eaten as a snack in the United States. Fruit snacks are very similar to gummi candies. The main content is sugar, especially sugar derived from concentrated white grape juice and apple juice. Some fruit snacks have more sugar than gummi candies, and they usually have less protein. The main differences between gummi candies and fruit snacks are the marketing and advertising approaches, and the use of refined sugar from fruits rather than from beets, corn, or sugar cane.
Well-known manufacturers of chewy fruit snacks include Promotion In Motion (Welch's brand), Kellogg's, General Mills and Betty Crocker.
Fruit snacks gained popularity from their convenience and candy-like taste. Most are stored in a simple plastic packaging that does not need to be refrigerated; therefore they can be taken virtually anywhere. However, they do have an expiration date. Fruit snacks range in the amount of fruit content. Some, like Welch's, contain fruit purees. Others only have trace amounts of juice, in addition to sugar.
Fruit leathers differ in that they have a different shape. The ingredients may be the same, or they may be made primarily from pureed, dried fruit and concentrated, high-sugar fruit juice.
Video Fruit snack
Nutrition
More than half the weight of the fruit snacks is simple sugars. They also contain an average of 12% water by weight, 25% starch, a small amount of fat, and a negligible amount of protein.
When reviewing the history and information of fruit snacks, there is a lot to be learned. Fruit snacks are one of the top finger foods, for children and teenagers. The top fruit snack brands are Kellogg's, Betty Crocker, and Welch's. Within these brands are typical fruit snacks and even other assortments of fruit flavor gummies. For example, there are your typical fruit shaped snacks, gushers, fruit rollups, fruit by the foot, etc. As tasty as these snacking treats may be there is also a lot of controversy about whether there are many health benefits within them. Looking at the common knowledge of any processed food, it is known that no matter how healthy they try to make processed food seem, the likelihood of it having many health benefits are very slim. Some fruit snack brands are attempting to revolutionize these treats, and by revolutionizing, making them healthy and not made of pure sugar. Fruits snack can, however, be made with natural fruit juices, but in most there are little to none. To give them their flavor, texture, and consistency there are many additives, artificial colors and flavors. When looking at these ingredients, just because something is stated to be natural doesn't mean it is good for you. Sugar and some fats are very common within snacking treats, such as fruit snacks, and sugar is considered a "natural" substance. Sugar may be natural, but due to the affect it has on your body the nutritional value is nearly nonexistent.
Sugar is the most prominent ingredient within these fruit snacks. Sugar and the effects it has basically causes a snowball effect that keeps rolling as more sugar is added to your body. The two main components of a natural sugar are glucose and fructose. When sugar is consumed by any person the two are then split and digested differently. Fructose is digested through a person's liver tract and is one of the main causes of diabetes due its effect on insulin. The fructose causes the insulin to go into a state of resistance within the body. Due to this resistance, insulin can not balance hormones within the body like it is supposed to. Insulin is the primary fluid within the body that regulates hormone control and with an imbalance of hormones this leads to different mutations or a decrease in hormones.
Sugary fruit snacks may be "delicious", however their nutritional accountability is next to none.
Maps Fruit snack
Price
As of 2015, fruit snacks generally cost two to five times the price of gummy bears.
History
The modern, highly processed fruit snack has nothing in common with dried fruit or candy. The first modern fruit snack was Joray Fruit Rolls, which were developed by confectioner Louis Shalhoub in the 1970s. It was used by backpackers as a lightweight, high-energy food rather than as healthful-sounding candy for children.
The name fruit snack was first used in 1983 by General Mills, which they used to describe their version of Shalhoub's product, Fruit Roll-Ups, which contained far more sugar.
By the mid-1980s, the fruit snack was a multimillion-dollar business.
Well-known companies
Betty Crocker via General Mills
General Mills, owner of Betty Crocker products, introduced the first Fruit Corners Fruit Roll-Ups in 1983 and then Fruit by the Foot. Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit by the Foot are packaged similarly, and the products are rolled around a material so the snack does not stick to itself. However, the two snacks differ with respect to taste, texture, and consistency.
Fruit Gushers, ) are fruit snacks in the shape of elongated hexagonal bipyramids, which made primarily from sugar and fruit juice, with small amounts of other ingredients. Introduced in 1991, they are produced by General Mills under the Betty Crocker brand name, and may be found in generic forms as well.
Welch's
Among the many product types under the Welch's brand are Welch's Fruit Snacks, which are manufactured and marketed under license by The Promotion In Motion Companies, Inc. Welch's Fruit Snacks are made with fruit purees and juices, among other ingredients.
In 2015, a class-action lawsuit was filed in California against Welch's Fruit Snacks, alleging illegal supplementation with vitamins, in violation of the jelly bean rule. The jelly bean rule prohibits food manufacturers from deceiving consumers into buying candy by adding vitamins and marketing the candy as a healthful food. Promotion in Motion, Inc., which manufactures Welch's fruit snacks under license, replied that the complaint is without merit, "It is a fact that fruit, whether in the form of juices or more recently purees, has always been the first ingredient in Welch's Fruit Snacks. Our labeling is truthful and gives consumers the information they need to make informed decisions." The case has not yet been settled.
Kellogg's
Kellogg's created "Fruit Winders" in the UK, which is similar to the American Fruit by the Foot by General Mills, only in fewer flavors. Unlike Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Winders contain no artificial colorings and each flavor is made with real purée derived from the fruit it represents (e.g. the strawberry flavour contains real strawberry purée).
Fruit Winders were introduced in the UK and Ireland in 2001 under the Kellogg's brand. The product was first called "Real Fruit Winders", which was later changed to "Screamin Fruit Winders" before being changed finally to "Kellogg's Fruit Winders". When the product first came out, the flavors were Orange, Strawberry and Blackcurrant, with Apple introduced shortly after.
Later, a public call-in contest was held where people would vote for a new Fruit Winders flavor. The choices were Tropical, Raspberry and Lemon. The winning flavor was Tropical, but Raspberry and Lemon were introduced later on afterwards. In 2006, Fruit Winders discontinued the Orange, Tropical, Raspberry and Lemon flavors along with the spin-off products, and made the strands small enough ti fit two on each winder. Apple and Blackcurrant were placed into the Doubles, including brands with Strawberry, leaving Strawberry the only flavour to be sold as a single packets, but with two smaller winders. As of 2017, there had been a new flavor of Very Cherry added, and is sold only in select stores.
The spin-off products were a squeezable product called Screamin Fruit Squidgers and gummy candies with a liquid centre, which were called Screamin Fruit Spurters. These were discontinued in 2006.
The television adverts for Fruit Winders showed a fruit with eyes and a mouth being winded into a Fruit Winder by a character that was a humanoid version of the fruit it was harming, these ads often had the slogan "Unwind the fruity fun, FOREVER!". On the paper attached to the Fruit Winder, a comic strip is shown, it shows a comic of the characters winding the fruit. Every Winder has a different story or way of being winded.
Fruit Winder Gang
- Blabber the Male Orange Jokester
- Booster the Male Blackcurrent Genius
- Max the Female Apple Athlete
- Sorbabe the Female Strawberry DJ
- Voodoo the Male Tropical Witch Doctor
- Unknown Cherry Character
- Unknown Female Lemon Genie
- Unknown Male Raspberry Secret Agent
Other brands
Annie's Homegrown Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks, owned by General Mills, uses sugar refined from sweet cassava roots.
Sunkist has manufactured and licensed several fruit snacks brands:
- Sunkist Fun Fruits was a licensed snack food from Leaf Confections Limited, manufactured with fruit from Sunkist Growers, Incorporated and packaged by Thomas J. Lipton. The snack, which was introduced in 1987, was small, soft, and pellet shaped. Initially, the product was available in four flavors: cherry, grape, orange and strawberry. Later that year, assorted shapes, such as dinosaurs and rock 'n' rollshapes, were introduced in order to appeal to children. With the dismantling of Leaf Confections, Sunkist licensed the production of fruit snacks:
- Sunkist First Fruit Snacks, in Canada, are manufactured by Ganong Bros. Limited
- Sunkist Fruit Gems are manufactured by the Ben Myerson Candy Company
- Sunkist Fruit Snacks are manufactured by General Mills, Inc.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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