My kid is obsessed with fruit snacks. I’m obsessed with healthy foods (I’m still learning, though). Sometimes I give in and get whatever Disney character fruit snacks she wants, but when I see an opportunity, I try to meet in the middle.
Up until the other day, the “healthiest” ones I could find (totally in a “the lesser of many evils” kind of way) still contained high fructose corn syrup and I’d cringe a little on the inside every time I handed a pack over. While I was in Target looking for something completely unrelated recently, I stumbled across the Florida’s Natural Organic Nuggets in the Berrilicious flavor.
Even though they taste more like candy than any other fruit snacks I’ve ever tried, the ingredients list doesn’t look too bad: organic fruit ingredients (organic pear puree from concentrate, organic pear juice from concentrate, organic lemon juice from concentrate, organic strawberry juice from concentrate, organic blueberry juice from concentrate), organic cane sugar, organic rice syrup, organic tapioca starch, contains 2% or less of citric acid, sodium citrate, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), natural flavors (strawberry, blueberry, cherry), pectin, organic maltodextrin, carnauba wax.
Would I prefer it if she’d just eat actual fruit when she has a desperate need for some fruit snacks? Yeah. I’d also prefer it if I’d eat fruit when I really want chocolate (that just doesn’t happen unless there’s fruit in the chocolate).
I mentioned that the Florida’s Natural Organic Nuggets taste more like candy than other kinds. They’re not as chewy, either. When you bite them, they don’t make your teeth bounce back, if that makes sense. They’re also smaller and don’t have a specific shape–think of Pop Rocks. The price at Target was around $2.50 or $3.00 for 10 pouches, which isn’t that far off from what I pay for the other kinds.
Photo credit: Target
