Fruit Gushers are a Betty Crocker-branded fruit snack introduced in 1991 and rated highly as of 2013.
History[]
Introduced in 1991, Fruit Gushers (sometimes simply Gushers) are a fruit snack from the Betty Crocker brand. Targeted at children, Gushers were acorn-shaped with a soft "licorice-like" exterior and a liquid inside, included "strawberries and pear puree concentrate", and came in two flavors: "Strawberry Splash" and "Gushin' Grape". A contemporary Sun-Sentinel review said that the insides oozed rather than gushed, and found the confectionary surprisingly pleasant. Each box of Fruit Gushers was list priced at US$2.19 (equivalent to $4.11 in 2019) and contained six pouches of Gushers, each of which had nine individual pieces for 90 calories (380 kJ) per pouch.
Composition[]
Strawberry-flavored Fruit Gushers are composed of pear concentrate, sugar, dried corn syrup, corn syrup, modified corn starch, fructose, and grape juice concentrate.
In 2003, one serving of any Fruit Gushers variety was one 0.9-ounce (26 g) package with 90 calories, zero protein, one gram (0.035 oz) of fat, and 20 grams (0.71 oz) of carbohydrates. In his 2018 book, Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom, Fred Provenza noted that while Fruit Gushers are fruit-flavored, their nutritional composition is very different from their produce counterparts. While 90 calories worth of Strawberry Fruit Gushers equaled 28 grams (0.99 oz) and contained nine grams (0.32 oz) of sugar, 1 g of fat, and cost $0.46 (equivalent to $0.47 in 2019); 90 calories worth of actual strawberries equaled 284 grams (10.0 oz) and contained five grams (0.18 oz) of dietary fiber, "many minerals and vitamins, and thousands of phytochemicals." Provenza called Fruit Gushers "empty calories".
Varieties[]
Betty Crocker released a new variety of Fruit Gushers in early 2020: "Galactic Fruit Gushers". These featured the flavors "Asteroid Apple", "Berry Star Cluster", and a mystery flavor labeled "Unidentified Flavored Object"; the latter was part of a contest where consumers could guess at the unknown flavor and win prizes "like sweatshirts, hats, blankets, pop sockets, and more". Galactic Fruit Gushers were sold through Walmart.com for $5.88.
Reception[]
In 2013, Complex magazine ranked Fruit Gushers the second-best fruit snack of all time, coming in behind another Betty Crocker product, Shark Bites.