Note: This article was originally published on Sunday, June 14, 2015 at 2:11 in the morning and has been updated.
While traveling, I often find items I do not find when I am at home — but one product which I found ten years ago has changed very little in 2025, which caused me to ask: Strawberry? Where is the strawberry?
Strawberry? Where Is the Strawberry?
In this case — in what appears to be a food service package instead of one available for retail — I found this serving of Strawberry Hunt’s Snack Pack Gel Snacks, as you can see in the photograph above. It proclaims to have “10 percent real Fruit Juice.”
Look closer and you will see that any evidence of a real strawberry is not found in — or anywhere near — the ingredients of this snack. Rather, the real fruit juice included is apple juice, according to the official Internet web site of what are currently known as Strawberry Snack Pack Juicy Gels. Back in 2015, this snack used to also include pear juice, peach juice, and pineapple juice. Since then, the name Hunt’s has been dropped from the product, which is produced by Conagra Brands.
Perhaps adipic acid is the scientific name for strawberry juice? Is carob bean gum — now no longer included in the product — a new flavor by Wrigley’s?
Ten years ago, I asked why not call the flavor of this snack fruit punch? I am sure there is not enough room on the label to call this Apple, Pear, Peach and Pineapple Hunt’s Snack Pack Gel Snacks — and I would consider eating a fruit snack named that, as it sounds good to me…
…but today, I am asking why not call the flavor of this snack Apple Snack Pack Juicy Gels?
I have a novel idea: how about including real strawberry juice in this snack if it is going to be called strawberry? Are strawberries really that expensive that their juice cannot be used in this snack without losing money? The label on the current product claims to have both natural flavors and artificial flavors — but the word strawberry is still not included in the list of ingredients.
I have grown strawberry plants myself, and they are rather easy to grow. In fact — under the right conditions — they will multiply by themselves with offshoots or “runners” which produce more strawberry plants; and more strawberry plants usually means more strawberries.
That has been my experience, anyway.
Final Boarding Call
Snack Pack Juicy Gels — which are no more juicier than they were ten years ago — is only one of countless edible products that should undergo similar scrutiny in the United States.
I have increasingly noticed that when I travel, I find that flavors seem to be stronger, fresher, tastier, and purer outside of the United States than similar products within the United States. As one of numerous examples, the fresh lemons I had in Greece in 2024 just seemed so much more flavorful than their brethren in the United States. I can say the same for breads in Finland, lamb in New Zealand, beef in Argentina, and tomatoes in Romania. Is that because they contain fewer to no artificial ingredients? Perhaps they are not genetically modified? Maybe they are not as processed?
What is sad is that every time I return to the United States, I increasingly miss the delicious food that I enjoyed while traveling aboard. I find that soft drinks with sugar as an ingredient are superior to those with high fructose corn syrup. Even food from McDonald’s tastes better in other countries than it does in the United States, which is borderline embarrassing.
Robert Francis Kennedy, Junior was been appointed the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in the United States and assumed office on Thursday, February 13, 2025. While I certainly do not agree with everything that he says or believes, I am hoping that he successfully pushes companies to produce food that is healthier and more flavorful by stripping out potentially harmful ingredients and creating food that is more nutritious and as close to its sources as possible.
That does not necessarily mean eliminating junk food. Just remove potentially toxic substances out of the food — such as tartrazine, which is also known as yellow dye #5.
Healthy food should not be so expensive that ordinary people cannot afford it…
…and if I crave strawberry, I want food with real strawberry as one of its ingredients.
Other articles which I have written pertaining to the subject of food and nutrition over the years at The Gate With Brian Cohen include:
- You Will Never Eat This Food if You Know What It is Made From?
- Is the Food You Eat Authentic or Fake When Dining Out? Watch Out For These Foods
- Food Fraud Costs Consumers Up to $40 Billion Per Year Worldwide
- Are Frequent Fliers Contributing to The Great Nutrition Collapse?
- The 20 Most Disgusting Canned Foods in the World?
- 7 Types of Foods You Should Never Buy at the Airport?
- From the Peanut Gallery: Should Food Allergies Determine What is Served Aboard Airplanes?
- Can You Correctly Guess Which Are the Eight Major Food Allergens?
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.
