Sneaky Stuff: Mott’s Applesauce Has High Fructose Corn Syrup

Hungry for some arsenic-laced apples from China, mixed with high fructose corn syrup and artificial colors? Look no further than Mott’s!

At a recent birthday party for a 5-year-old, my own 4-year-old ate three slices of the pizza being served, and turned up his nose at the cup of Mott’s applesauce at his place setting. I grabbed a spoon and started to peel off the tinfoil lid so I could feed it to my baby, thinking “sure, it’s not organic, but it’ll do.” Then I glanced at the ingredients list–which I hope you can see in this picture to the right. Mott’s original applesauce contains apples, naturally, and then also….high fructose corn syrup.

In all my years of sleuthing, how have I never uncovered this sneakiest of the Sneaky Stuff?! With a bit more digging I found out that:

1. If you want Mott’s applesauce without added sugar, Mott’s Natural applesauce is the one to get. Mott’s Original Applesauce, as I discovered, has added high fructose corn syrup. (The naming here is odd, since the original applesauce made by Mott’s couldn’t possibly have had corn syrup, since back in 1842 there was no such thing.)
2. Some of Mott’s flavored applesauces contain artificial colors. (The pear-flavored applesauce contains sugar, HFCS, and artificial blue coloring, for instance.)
3. The Original Applesauce in the Snack and Go pouch (which are often used as baby food!) also contain HFCS. The mango-peach pouch has artificial colors.

This popular food for babies and toddlers contains high fructose corn syrup, too.

Before leaving the party, I picked up my son’s deflated juice box—which had contained Mott’s apple juice. Although this was 100% juice (from concentrate, obviously), it specified that the apples used to make the juice were grown in China. And of course, we know that apples coming from China have been shown to have dangerous levels of carcinogenic arsenic.

Bottom line: Mott’s is super sneaky and you shouldn’t support this company (which is owned by soda giant Dr. Pepper Snapple Company, by the way). In a pinch, the Natural Applesauce is okay.

Stay sane,

Maia, Founder & CEO