Review of Vegan Organic Frozen Fruit Pops and Bars
by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
A frozen treat on a warm day is many people's idea of happiness. Happiness, perhaps, until you notice the ingredient list on the package includes artificial colors, dairy products, or other items you'd prefer to avoid. Recent years have seen more vegan frozen fruit pops and bars, many made with organic ingredients, and without artificial colors. We looked at the ingredients and nutritional make up of vegan organic frozen fruit pops and bars.
Most of the products that we include in this article have a relatively short list of ingredients, typically puré fruit or fruit juice, sugar, and stabilizers like guar gum and xanthan gum. Stabilizers are used to reduce ice crystal formation. Some products replace sugar with fruit juice concentrate or omit sugar entirely. Some include natural colors and flavors.
Vegan frozen fruit bars and pops come in a variety of flavors ranging from the standards like strawberry, cherry, and grape to mango, blueberry-pomegranate, and watermelon.
Most frozen fruit bars and pops provide little in the way of nutrients; they are mainly sources of calories and carbohydrates. On the other hand, they have little fat and/or sodium. Most products have little or no saturated fat, the exception being products made with coconut. These products can have as much as 5 grams of saturated fat in a fruit bar or pop. A product with 4 or more grams of saturated fat is considered to be a high saturated-fat food.
Food labels are required to include information about how much sugar is added to a product as well as how much total sugar is in a food. Consider a serving of unsweetened applesauce, which would have no added sugar but would contain naturally occurring sugar from the apples used to make the applesauce. It is telling that some of the frozen bars and pops have all or almost all of their sugar content from added sugar. This means there is little fruit (or naturally occurring sugar) in these products; the products' calories are mostly from added sugar.
According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, people older than two years should keep added sugar to less than 10% of total calories. For an adult consuming 2,000 calories a day, no more than 200 calories should come from added sugar. That means 50 grams or less of added sugar per day. A child consuming 1,500 calories a day should eat no more than about 38 grams a day of added sugar. A frozen fruit bar with 15 grams of added sugar makes a significant contribution to a day's allowance for added sugar.
If you'd prefer to avoid or limit added sugar, look for products that have zero or low amounts of added sugar. You can also make your own fruit pops using blended fruit and adjusting the sweetness to taste.
Some of these products are labeled as gluten-free, and we have listed those below. Product composition changes, so check the ingredient label and contact the company if you have allergies or other dietary considerations.
Products identified on package and/or website as gluten-free:
- ll Goodpops organic vegan freezer pops
- All Jonny Pops organic vegan pops and freezer pops
- All Whole Fruit organic vegan fruit bars and juice pops
Thank you to Alexis Brown, VRG intern, and Mae Y. Seon, VRG volunteer, for collecting and checking information used in this article.
Vegan Frozen Organic Fruit Pops and Bars
Nutrient amounts are per bar or pop. Products contain little or no protein, sodium, or fiber. N/A indicates information that we were not able to determine. See chart in Issue 3 2023 PDF online under www.vrg.org/journal/index.php
