‘Healthy’ fruit snacks with more sugar than Haribo

THEY are marketed as healthy options for a child’s lunchbox – but many fruit snacks contain more sugar than a pack of sweets, campaigners warn.

Packs of raisins and strawberry pieces coated in yoghurt can contain the equivalent of more than four teaspoons of sugar.

The warning comes from Action on Sugar, which found 85 per cent ‘healthy’ fruit snacks are full of sugar – which experts say plays a part in rising obesity rates among young children and teenagers.

The same research found nearly all would carry a ‘red’ warning on the label for high sugar, based on Food Standards Agency guidelines.

Some of the products carry health boasts that they qualify as being one of the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. However, they are so high in sugar they are classed as confectionery under new school nutrition guidelines and so would be banned from tuck-shops.

Action on Sugar picked out Tesco’s Yogurt coated Strawberry Fruit Bites, which carries a logo reading ‘Ideal for lunchboxes’. It said a small 25g pack contains 17.5g of sugar, which equates to 4.4 teaspoons.

Packs of yogurt coated Fruit Bowl Fruit Flakes Raspberry Rush are sold as ‘1 of your 5 a day’. However, each 25g pack is made of 17.3g of sugar which equates to 4.3 teaspoons.

The Fruit Factory Sports Mix-ups are sold with a claim they are ‘made with 75 per cent fruit’. However, these had the highest sugar content at 81g per 100g. All these examples contained more sugar per 100g than a pack of conventional sweets, such as Haribo Starmix, which come in at 47g of sugar per 100g. Graham MacGregor, of Queen Mary university of London, warned of the ‘pandemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes, linked to high sugar intakes’, adding: ‘This survey illustrates the fact that the food industry is the cause of this pandemic, by taking something as natural as fruit and ruining it by adding sugar.’

Official figures show that one in three children aged 11 to 15 are considered overweight or obese.

Action on Sugar’s Katharine Jenner said: ‘Parents find it hard enough to know what is “healthy” without food manufacturers confusing matters with misleading claims.

A Food and Drink Federation spokesman said: ‘Everyone knows fruit contains sugars and the total sugar content of these products is clearly and consistently listed in the nutrition information table. Parents can use this information to compare and choose between products.’