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Golden Circle Strawberry Squeeze | Chewsday Review

There are so many squeezie packs on the market now, and it’s not just yoghurt. Today’s review features Golden Circle Strawberry Squeeze. This is in the regular tinned fruit aisle (not the baby/child aisle). Let’s see how it fares…

Ingredients

Reconstituted apple puree (85%), strawberry puree (10%), reconstituted pear puree (10%), vitamin C, inulin (dietary fibre)
To make sense of that, this product is mostly apple puree
Reconstituted puree means that the original puree has been heated to remove the water, then made up again with water once the puree has been transported to the manufacturing plant. It would have to state if there was added sugar- so you can be confident they’ve just added the water back in. This process obviously involved heating the puree, which will destroy some of the natural Vitamin C, but this has been added back in.
Common allergens: nil. Strawberry can cause a slight mouth rash for some kiddos but it’s usually just a skin reaction and quite harmless.

Positives

A source of fibre at 2g per packet which equates to 14% of a toddler’s fibre requirements and 11% of an older child’s fibre requirements. Comparatively, an apple has about 3g of fibre.
Sugar content is within guidelines at 12.6g. This sugar is entirely from the fruit, and none has been added. However, we don’t quite know how much water had been added back to the puree during reconstitution so it may be a bit more concentrated (read sweeter) than standard puree. This isn’t worth obsessing over, but just something to keep in mind.
Low sodium content, which I’d expect.
Almost no fat or saturated fat.
Made from 85% Australian products, however, I’d like to know which fruits have come from overseas and where.

Negatives

The squeezie packet! It just doesn’t promote good biting and chewing skills, rather promotes a reliance on sucking. I’d prefer kiddos eating a whole piece of fruit.
These are $1.50 for a squeezie, which works out to 12.50/kg. Compare that to apples pears at $3-$5 a kilo and strawberries at maybe $10/kg, then they’re about double the price. But obviously you’re paying for convenience.

Marketing

Alternatives