When it comes to beverages, fruit juice often finds itself at the centre of discussions about sugar content.
It is important to understand the difference between natural sugar in fruit juice and added sugar and sweeteners.
Fruit juice is a completely natural product which contains naturally occurring sugars. These sugars are an inherent part of the fruit’s composition. The sugar in fruit juice is accompanied by a wealth of vitamins and minerals, making fruit juice a healthier choice compared to many other sweetened beverages.
To help you navigate the sugar content of our drinks, and make the right choices for your health, we have shared our most frequently asked questions and answers below.
We have also collated this Frobishers Sugar Content Information document for you to be able to quickly identify the amount of sugar in each of our drinks and whether they contained any added sugar.
Do your drinks contain added sugar?
Our 100% fruit juices (Apple, Orange, Pineapple, Grapefruit and Tomato) do not contain any added sugar. 100% fruit juice cannot by law contain added sugar.
Certain flavours in our Spectacular Sparklers range, do contain some sugar. We don’t use any artificial sweeteners, preferring sugar as a more natural choice. We sometimes also use fruit juice (often apple or grape) to naturally sweeten our drinks. That’s why you’ll see apple juice or grape juice on the list of ingredients for many of our products. You’ll sometimes see this referred to as ‘fruit derived sugar’ or ‘fruit extract’ on our labels. Our cranberry juice drink contains fructose as cranberries are very tart without anything to sweeten them. Fructose, also known as fruit sugar, is a simple sugar naturally occurring in fruit.
You can view the ingredients list on the back of each bottle, or by clicking on each product in the ‘shop’ area of our website.
What’s the difference between a fruit juice and a fruit juice drink?
Fruit juice is made from the flesh of fresh fruit or even the whole fruit itself. It comes in the many flavours that nature provides and contains valuable nutrients that contribute to a healthy diet. Fruit juice is a completely natural product. Sugars, sweeteners, preservatives, flavourings or colourings cannot be added. This is regulated by legislation in the form of The Fruit Juices & Nectars Regulations.
Fruit juice contains varying amounts of vitamins and minerals. Not only that, a 150ml serving counts as one of your 5-A-Day.
Juice drinks, on the other hand, must contain real fruit but can also contain water and other elements such as sugar, sweeteners and flavourings. Certain products in our 250ml juice range are juice drinks. Some, such as Frobishers Cranberry and Frobishers Cherry (made using sour cherries), wouldn’t be palatable without some extra sweetness. Others, such as Frobishers Mango and Frobishers Bumbleberry, would be too thick to drink on their own as they are produced using fruit purees, so water is added, sometimes along with other juices to balance the flavour.
Are any of your drinks low calorie?
Drinks with 20 calories or fewer per 100ml can be called low calorie. Our Spectacular Sparklers fall into this category. You can view full nutritional info by clicking on each product in the ‘shop’ area of our website.
Why do you add ascorbic acid, pectin, citric acid etc to your drinks?
Ascorbic acid is an antioxidant, also known as Vitamin C. It is naturally present in many fruits. When our apple juice arrives at the bottling site, the levels of ascorbic acid naturally present in the juice are tested, and if it has dropped below a certain level, we add a little extra. This prevents the juice from browning too quickly. You’ll see it added to most major brands of NFC apple juice.
We add pectin to Frobishers Pineapple Juice. Pectin is naturally present in many fruits; ours is derived from apples. The natural sediment in pineapple juice separates very quickly, and pectin helps to prevent this. We don’t add too much, so give your bottle a good shake before opening.
Citric acid again occurs naturally in many fruits, particularly citrus. We use it in some of our Spectacular Sparklers, sometimes with ascorbic acid, to balance flavour.
If you have any other questions regarding the ingredients or sugar content in our drinks, please contact ahoy@frobishers.com and someone will get back to you.
