Bogus Blueberries- What you Need to Know!

Oh blueberries. These little berries are part of the latest food trend that promotes consuming more antioxidant-rich foods. Manufacturers have picked up on this health trend and in an attempt to drive product sales, they continue to boast claims of their product containing blueberries. With this word written in large letters across a package with the image of fresh, plump berries, consumers assume they have found a gem of a product. In fact, blueberries are a great source of vitamin C, dietary fiber, and manganese, which is good for bone development. But, the truth of the matter is that too many of these packages are making false claims, and it would take the consumer to actually read the fine print and ingredient label to discover if such claims are truthful or not. Unfortunately, not every consumer analyzes food labels, making it easy to be swindled by your favorite, trusted brands.

Products with blueberry claims can range from having actually no source of real blueberries to simply just their juice, or even worse, an imitation blueberry bit made from artificial dye, sugar, and partially hydrogenated oil. Below is a list of some popular big name foods items that make such false claims.

Kellogg’s Frosted Mini Wheats Blueberry Muffin

This cereal’s ingredient list contains no mention of blueberries, leading the “fruit” to actually be a mixture of corn syrup, gelatin, soybean oil, and blue 2 lake, red 40 lake and red 40 dyes.

Kellogg’s Frosted Blueberry Pop Tarts

These pop tarts do contain dried blueberries under its ingredient list, but only as a mere addition to more inexpensive fillers including dried grapes, dried apples, natural and artificial blueberry flavor, and blue #2 and blue #1 dyes, which help make up for the minimal presence of the real stuff.

Kellogg’s Special K Blueberry Cereal Bars

These cereal bars look like they are filled with bits of dried blueberries, but these blue bits are actually cranberries that are flavored with blueberry and grape juice from concentrate.

Dunkin’ Donuts’ Blueberry Bagel

This popular chain’s bagel is made with sugar infused wild blueberries and Craisins containing blueberry extract, as oppose to the “authentic goodness” the website boasts in regards to its bagels.    

The most important thing to take away from this information is to become aware of the food that you purchase from a store. Be smart and look beyond the clever wording and enticing graphics to discover what is really inside of the package. Blueberries are an excellent food to include in your diet. But, go a step further and eat the real thing! So the next time you pour a bowl of cereal or make muffins, go ahead and throw in a handful of real, fresh blueberries and know what it is that you are eating.