Goodness Me Really Fruity Sticks Strawberry & Blueberry | Chewsday Review

Goodness me! Another fruit snack. But wait... is this really made from fruit or have they added some extras in there too? Let's find out if this is really fruity or just fruit flavoured.

Ingredients

Fruit Juices & Purees (70%) (Pear Puree Concentrate (68%). Strawberry Juice Concentrate (1%). Blueberry Juice Concentrate (1%)), Sugar, Corn Syrup, Starch, Acidity Regulators (Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate), Apple Fibre, Natural Flavourings (Strawberry, Blueberry), Gelling Agent (Pectin), Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid), Natural Colours (Anthocyanins).
This fruit stick is mostly pear (70%) and contains barely any strawberry or blueberry… they’ve cleverly grouped the strawberry and blueberry with the pear to make it appear more. I’d bet there is more added sugar than berries in this fruit stick.
Contains no common allergens.

Positives

Negatives

You may have clocked it in the ingredients list, but this fruit snack contains added sugar. Both sugar and corn syrup have been added to sweeten this product.
Goodness Me Really Fruity Sticks also contain fruit juice concentrate and fruit puree concentrate. This is when the water is removed from fruit juice or puree, leaving behind a concentrated source of sugar from the fruit. Fruit juice or purees concentrates are often used as a way to sweeten products without technically adding sugar as an ingredient. This can be a bit misleading, as at first glance it looks like fruit rather than sugar in the ingredient list.
A box of 8 is $6 which works out to be $50 per kg. This is cheaper than Bob Snail Rolls but still a lot more expensive than regular dried fruit (approx. $20 per kg).
I can’t find how much fibre this contains but I’m going to assume it’s low as this is made from mostly fruit concentrates.
I’ve mentioned this before, but dried fruit sticks, rolls, straps etc. are quite sticky and we don’t want stuck in your child’s teeth for too long. It can help to serve with other foods and a drink of water to reduce this.

Marketing

“70% pear based fruit and juice”. I guess they couldn’t really make a claim on the strawberry or blueberry content here…
“Really fruity sticks”. This is clever. They haven’t said “Real fruit sticks” because that would be questionable, but this is used to make you think it is made from just fruit (which it is not).
“100% natural colours and flavours”. This claim seems to be on every snack food nowadays.

Alternatives

This snack does contain fruit, but it’s mostly pear puree concentrate and also contains added sugar, so I’d generally recommend trying to find a 100% fruit option, like Bob Snail Rolls or Sun Valley Fruit Bars instead.
Fruit sticks and snacks are convenient, but let’s not disregard offering regular dried fruit which will be much cheaper and higher in fibre.
Making your own bliss balls or fruit bars is a great way to add variety to your rotation while reducing costs and added sugar. Check out my recipes in the Toddler Mealtimes and Family Mealtimes memberships.

The composition of food products changes regularly. The nutritional values of the products in this Chewsday Review were correct at the time of publishing.