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Walden Farms Fruit Spreads

Whole fruit pictured on the labels belies the ingredients inside.

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Walden Farms Fruit Spreads

Walden Farms says its fruit spreads contain no “calories, fat, carbs, gluten or sugars of any kind!”

There’s another thing these spreads are without: real fruit. This, despite images of succulent (and very real-looking) whole fruit on the labels of the spreads:

The reason your taste buds might not be able to tell the difference is because of flavoring, which is what Walden Farms substitutes in its spreads for whole fruit. The apple butter spread has “apple flavor” and “brown sugar flavor.” The blueberry spread contains “natural blueberry flavor.” And the raspberry spread has “natural raspberry flavor.”

Walden Farms says all its fruit spreads are made with natural flavors, which sounds pleasing to our health-conscious minds. However, the reality is natural flavors are not all that different from artificial flavors.

Natural flavors are derived from natural sources, namely plants or animals, whereas artificial flavors are synthesized in a lab. But besides that, both serve the same purpose (to make food taste better and keep you coming back for more); both can comprise more than 100 chemicals once the flavorist’s work is complete, some of which may be synthetic; and both are additives according to the FDA.

All of which widens the gap between the whole fruit pictured on Walden Farms’ labels and the actual ingredients inside.

Find more of our coverage on natural flavor here.


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