My 9-year-old has been begging me to buy those little squeezable fruit pouches that have become so popular, and for a long time I’ve said no because a.) they’re a little expensive and b.) they remind me of baby food. However, in my quest to pack healthy foods my kids will actually eat in their school lunches, I gave in when Aldi had its squeezable fruit pouches slightly discounted.
These SimplyNature Kids Squeezable Fruit Blends pouches come in a couple of different flavors: Unsweetened Apple, Apple Cinnamon, Applesauce, Apple Banana, and Apple Multi-Fruit. We went with the Apple Multi-Fruit.
Our pouches advertise no high fructose corn syrup, and they are dairy and nut free and made with real fruit. I was impressed by the ingredients list for the Apple Multi-Fruit flavor: apple puree (apples, ascorbic acid), banana puree, apple juice concentrate, mango puree, strawberry puree, and passion fruit juice concentrate.
Each box contains four 3.2-ounce pouches, and the Apple Multi-Fruit flavor had 70 calories, 0 grams saturated fat, 0 mg sodium, and 13 grams of sugar in each one-serving pouch. The box features a non-GMO verified seal from www.nongmoproject.org.
The packaging states these pouches are good for school lunches, backpacks, sports, parties, picnics, and purses. They are convenient because they don’t need refrigeration, unless you open one and decide to save it for later.
You do pay for that convenience. I bought these pouches on sale for $1.49 a box at my store, which brings the price to about 37 cents per pouch. When the pouches aren’t on sale, my store sells them for $1.89 a box, or about 47 cents per pouch. You’ll have to decide whether the cost of a pre-packaged organic snack like this is worth it. At least it’s all healthy ingredients, even if it is like baby food.
The Verdict:
Aldi’s SimplyNature Kids Apple Multi-Fruit Squeezable Fruit Blend pouches are a snack without added sugar or unhealthy ingredients, and they don’t need refrigeration, so they’re easy to tuck into lunch boxes or backpacks. You pay for the convenience of individually packaged snack pouches, but your kids will probably like them.
We use the organic baby pouches (4oz instead of 3.2) from Aldi. I was wondering what the difference between the kid version (the one shown in pictures here) and the baby version. I found 2 major differences. 1) The kid version is NOT organic even though it is under the “Simply Nature” product line. It is non GMO at least. 2) Each of the 3 products at the store I visited (apple, peach, and multi-fruit) have ADDED sugar! Sugar is not listed as an ingredient, but under nutritional information it shows 2-4g of added sugar per pack. I was very surprised by this! We bought the kids version to bring on a plane for our 9 month old since they are under 3.5 ounces (the organic baby kind are too big at 4 ounces). Sadly I won’t be giving her anymore after seeing the added sugar on the packaging today!
I’m wondering if Aldi has reformulated the pouches marketed to kids. The other day, apple was the only flavor I could find without added sugar.
Sugar occurs naturally in fruit and vegetables.That’s why you see sugar listed in the nutritional information, but not a sugar an ingredient. It’s natural sugar. NOt added sugar.
I just double checked. I was wrong about the apple! It had no added sugar. The multi-fruit has 2g added sugar, and the peach has 4g. None of the 3 are listed as organic, but still are NON GMO . I don’t understand how there can be added sugars without sugar on the ingredients list. So you were right on the apple. Sorry for the mistake!
No problem. I know for sure I saw some non-apple flavors the other day that said they had added sugars. I like to avoid added sugar in fruit products because they should already be naturally sweet, right? I will check out what’s available next time I’m at Aldi and possibly write an update if the products have changed.
How long are these pouches good ?
The pouches last a long time if they are unopened. I bought a box a few months ago, and they have a best by date of December of 2019.
Someone gave me a box of 3.2 oz ones but I don’t know how to eat them. Could you help me out here? Does one just eat them as is or put them on a plate to eat?
Thanks.