Lunch Buddies Fruit Snacks

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When I need to send a kid to school with snacks to share for a birthday or a holiday party, I have a couple of go-tos. Big boxes of chip bags are always a winner. Also among my favorites are the large boxes of fruit snacks that Aldi sells.

I like these fruit snacks for several reasons. First, they’re sold in a large box with 28 individual pouches, so it’s usually enough to serve to an entire class. Second, they contain none of the most common allergens. My kids have several friends with peanut allergies, so finding snacks that everyone can safely enjoy is important.

Plus, if you like chewy gummy snacks, these fit the bill. As someone who loves gummy bears, gummy worms, and similar types of candy, fruit snacks are not all that far removed from gummy candy, so they’ve always been a favorite of mine. I’m especially partial to name-brand Welch’s Fruit Snacks.

Lunch Buddies Fruit Snacks cost $4.69 at the time of publication for a 25.2-ounce box that contains 28 0.9-ounce pouches. That comes out to about 17 cents per pouch or about 19 cents per ounce. These appear to be competitively priced when compared to other fruit snack brands.

For comparison, Dollar General’s Clover Valley Fruit Snacks are cheaper per pouch, coming in around 15 cents each, but they have a higher price per ounce at about 25 cents per ounce, making the Aldi fruit snacks the better deal over the dollar store fruit snacks.

Meanwhile, a 40-pack of Welch’s Fruit Snacks at Walmart cost about 21 cents per pouch or about 27 cents per ounce, which is not surprisingly higher than the Aldi price. A 50-pack of store brand Great Value Fruit Smiles at Walmart cost about 17 cents per pouch or about 18 cents per ounce, so you might get a marginally better deal buying the Walmart house brand compared to the Aldi fruit snacks. However, the Walmart brand fruit snacks may contain traces of nuts and other allergens, and they contain artificial colors, which the Aldi fruit snacks don’t have. Even the Welch’s brand contains a couple of artificial dyes.

In terms of avoiding artificial colors and common allergens, the Aldi fruit snacks might be more comparable to name brand Mott’s Fruit Snacks, which cost about 20 cents per pouch or about 25 cents per ounce at Walmart. So you’re still getting the better deal with the Aldi brand.

These Aldi fruit snacks are a Regular Buy, so you should be able to find them at Aldi all year.

These are a product of Mexico.

They come in assorted flavors, including cherry, orange, apple, strawberry, blue raspberry, and grape.

Nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)

These are like most fruit snacks or gummy candies and contain some processed ingredients and plenty of sugar. Ingredients include apple juice from concentrate, corn syrup, sugar, gelatin, modified cornstarch, citric acid, natural flavors, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), sodium citrate, spirulina extract (color), carnauba wax, black carrot juice (color), paprika oleoresin (color), carrot juice (color), turmeric oleoresin (color), and blueberry juice (color).

One pouch has 80 calories, no fat or cholesterol, 20 mg of sodium (1% DV), 19 grams of total carbohydrates (7% DV), 15 grams of total sugars, and 14 grams of added sugars (28% DV).

The contents of one pouch.

So how do these taste? They’re good. Are they the best fruit snacks I’ve ever had? No. Welch’s are still my favorite fruit snacks, but when I want fruit snacks on a budget, the Aldi ones are fine. They’re chewy but not overly sticky and won’t coat your teeth as badly as other brands. They have a general “fruity” taste, but I wouldn’t say the flavors are all that distinct or obvious. I’ll happily eat these, and the fact that they come in such a large box makes them pretty tempting.

The Verdict:

Lunch Buddies Fruit Snacks are individually packaged and sold in a big box that’s great for keeping in your pantry or sending to school parties. These contain no common allergens such as nuts. Like all Aldi house brands, they’re also free of artificial colors, and you can’t say the same for a lot of other pricier popular brands. These taste good, too.