Consumer Council｜Disney's dried raisins marked 19 times more sugar, 4 dried fruits containing at least ten pesticides

Many people regard dried fruit as a healthy snack, but if you eat too much, you can get too much sugar.

The Consumer Council tested a total of 31 prepackaged dried fruits in 6 categories on the market and found that all samples were "high-sugar" foods. Among them, the sugar content of the dried raisins from Disney Disney was more than 19 times higher than the sugar content stated on the package. Together with Biomen The difference between the actual sugar content and the declared value of dried apricots from Green Sun Garden, dried mangoes from Green Sun Garden and dried strawberries from Lei Yue Mun Shao Xiang Yuan exceeds the regulatory tolerance limit of the Hong Kong "Technical Guidelines on Nutrition Labeling and Nutrition Claims". Submit to the Center for Food Safety for follow-up.

In addition, 3 or more pesticides were detected in 14 samples, including dried blueberries from Kirkland Signature, dried raisins from Martha Marks & Spencer, dried raisins from Mariani, and dried grapes from Sun-maid. As many as 10 or more pesticides have been detected during the operation, the Consumer Council urges the industry to use physical control measures to manage pests and diseases as much as possible.

▼Six types of pre-packaged dried fruit samples are all ``high sugar'' foods▼

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The Consumer Council tested dried apricots, dried blueberries, dried cranberries, dried mangoes, dried raisins and dried strawberries on the market, and found that the average sugar content of dried raisins was the highest among the 6 types of dried fruits. The average content per 100 grams is 57.4 grams, and the sugar content detected by Disney Disney is more than 19 times higher than the sugar content marked on the packaging.

The average sugar content of dried apricot samples was the lowest among the 6 types of dried fruits, with an average content of 35.8 grams per 100 grams.

The sugar content detected by Biomen is 327.8% higher than the value indicated on its nutrition label.

The 5 dried blueberries and 4 dried cranberries tested were marked with added sugar.

Since blueberries and cranberries have a sour taste, sugars are generally added to the 2 types of dried fruits to neutralize their sourness.

The sugar content per 100g of dried blueberries and dried cranberries ranges from 45.0g to 54.2g and 49.4g to 57.4g, respectively.

Regarding dried mangoes, Green Sun Garden contains 62 grams of sugar per 100 grams, which is the highest among the 4 dried mango samples. It is 520% ​​higher than the sugar content stated on its nutrition label (10 grams of sugar per 100 grams). .

As for dried strawberries, the detected sugar content of dried strawberries from Lei Yue Mun Shao Xiang Yuan is about 162.8% higher than the sugar content stated on the packaging.

The four types of dried fruit samples whose actual sugar content differs from the declared value beyond the 120% regulatory tolerance limit of the "Technical Guidelines" have been sent to the Center for Food Safety for follow-up.

▼The difference between the actual sugar content of the 4 samples and the label value exceeds the requirements of the Technical Guidelines▼

Two types of sugar content are lower than the label

The study also found that the detected sugar content of some samples was much lower than the labeled content. The samples with larger differences were the green dot dot dried strawberries and Sunny Fruit dried apricots. The actual sugar content was higher than the labeled content. The values ​​are 68.4% and 60.2% lower, respectively.

The Consumer Council urges the industry not only to provide regulatory labels, but also to ensure that the contents of the labels are accurate. It also recommends that the industry list the added sugar content in nutrition labels so that consumers can choose healthier products and encourage the industry Produce or import products with less free sugar content.

It takes 36 minutes to consume 1 serving of dried fruit sugar energy

In this study, the serving size (ie 40 grams) used by more than half of the samples with labeled serving size was used as the serving size of the sample.

Based on each serving size, the highest sugar intake is 31.5 grams when eating 1 serving of dried strawberry pear from Lei Yue Mun Shao Xiang Yuan.

Based on the calculation that each 1 gram of sugar provides 4 kcal of energy, the sugar content of a 40-gram sample provides 126 kcal of energy.

Assuming an adult weighing 60 kg, walking at a speed of 3 kilometers per hour can consume about 70 kilocalories per kilometer (about 20 minutes), and the adult needs to walk 1.8 kilometers (about 36 minutes) to consume 1 serving of dried fruit The energy provided by the sugar.

(Picture of the Consumer Council)

4 types contain 10 or more pesticides

The test results found that 21 types of samples were detected with pesticides, of which nearly 70% of the samples were detected with more than 1 type of pesticides, and 4 types even detected as many as 10 or more types of pesticides, including Kirkland Signature’s dried blueberries. , Raisins from Martha Marks & Spencer, Raisins from Mariani, and Raisins from Sun-maid.

Although the amount of pesticide residues detected in all samples did not exceed the relevant upper limit, the mixed use of pesticides has the opportunity to produce a "cocktail effect" due to the additive effect, which brings health risks.

The Consumer Council expects that the industry will adopt raw material suppliers with good agricultural practices, first take physical control measures to manage pests and diseases, reduce the use of pesticides and other chemical control, and protect consumers' food safety and ecological impact.

Dried fruit cannot completely replace fresh fruit

Can dried fruit replace fresh fruit?

The traditional method mainly uses sun or natural air drying, or heat drying to remove most of the water in the fruit.

During the dehydration process, some nutrients and antioxidants in the fruit may be lost.

Freeze drying (freeze drying for short) is also a popular method of making dried fruits in recent years.

The fruit is first frozen, and then the frozen water in the fruit is sublimated into gaseous state under low pressure and vacuum environment.

Compared with the traditional method, this method can reduce the loss of nutrients, but the cost is higher than the traditional method, so the product price is generally higher.

The Consumer Council explained that as nutrients such as vitamins are more or less lost during the manufacturing process of dried fruits, they cannot completely replace fresh fruits. In addition, dried fruits will be dehydrated and the sugar will be concentrated and the sugar content is high. It is not advisable to overeat them.

The Association recommends that you try to choose small packages of products, or divide a large package of dried fruit into small packages to control the amount of consumption and avoid eating too much dried fruit at a time.

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