Transform your life by making intelligent, informed food choices 101
Apple Sauce Pro’s, Con’s and other considerations
Do you want to provide great tasting, healthy food for you and your family that’s kind to the planet?
You might have been spending your precious time checking what foods meet those needs. You came across the lovely, humble apple sauce.
Have you asked yourself how you can include this in your diet with the least possible fuss?
No single food is going to solve all your problems and Apple Sauce is no different.
We’ve been producing Apple Sauce for a little while now and hopefully we can show you the pro’s and con’s of each way to get apple sauce on your table so you can decide what is best for you.
We’ll make our case for our 100% organic apple sauce but you will get an honest assessment of the different brands that are available so you can make informed food choices.
Home-made Apple Sauce
Your informed food choice might be to make your own.
If you love the smell of cooking apples then making it yourself might be just what you are looking for.
The advantages and disadvantages of doing it yourself are:
- You get to decide what type of apples to use
- You get to decide what other ingredients to use
- Whether to add processed sugar or not
- Make as much or as little as you want
- You will have to peel the apples if you use conventional ones
- Sourcing organic ingredients can be time consuming
- From start to finish you will need at least an hour
- It may take some trial and error for you to get it right
Commercial Apple Sauce using conventional apples
Your informed food choice might be to grab a jar at your local supermarket.
This sauce is produced using apples that have been grown on a conventional orchard. For the full story see our article Is organic Food Better for you.
The highlights are how the two methods differ on the use of pesticides, biodiversity, taste and nutrition.
The advantages and disadvantages of this type are:
- Lower cost
- Increased shelf life
- Increased once opened life.
- Packaging is 100% recyclable (glass jar)
- Time saving
- Widely available
- Less health benefits as the peel is removed
- High processed sugar content
- Contains artificial chemicals
- Unable to see where the ingredients come from
- Harmful to the environment
- Contains synthetic pesticides
Something else to consider is what may be added to the applesauce.
For example, this well-known commercial brand of applesauce contains these ingredients:
- Conventional Apples (69%)
- Sugar
- Glucose Fructose Syrup
- Water
- Modified Corn Starch
- Acid (Citric Acid)
- Preservative (Potassium Sorbate)
Organic Apple Sauce
Your informed food choice may be to buy this popular organic applesauce in pouches available online and in many shops.
This sauce is produced using apples that have been grown on an organic orchard. For the full story see our article Is Organic Food Better for you.
This organic Apple Sauce is one that is very popular with parents and young children.
The advantages and disadvantages of this type are:
- No synthetic pesticides present in the fruit
- No added processed sugar
- No artificial preservatives
- Organic farming is considered better for the environment in many ways
- More beneficial bacteria that promote good gut health
- Time Saving and convenient
- Widely available
- More expensive
- Lower health benefits since the skin is removed in processing
- Contains fruit juice which increases the sugar content but without the insoluble fibre
- Unable to see where the ingredients come from
- Shorter shelf life once opened
- Uses plastic in the packaging
This brand has this list of ingredients:
- Organic Class II Apples (94.2%)
- Concentrated Apple Juice
- Concentrated Lemon Juice
All the ingredients are certified organic, lemon juice is usually added to increase the acidity of the apple sauce which provides a longer shelf life like the use of citric acid in the conventional applesauce product.
The New England Apple Sauce Company 100% Organic Apple Sauce
Your informed food choice may be to try our home made apple sauce.
This sauce is produced using Class I apples that have been grown on an organic orchard.
For the full story see our article on Is Organic Food Better for you.
The advantages and disadvantages of this type are:
- No synthetic pesticides present in the fruit
- No added sugar
- No artificial preservatives
- Organic farming is considered better for the environment in many ways
- More beneficial bacteria that promote good gut health
- Higher levels of phytonutrients and fibre since the peel is left on
- Origin of all ingredients is listed
- Made for all ages to enjoy not just children and seniors.
- All packaging is 100% recyclable or compostable, a large portion comes from recycled material.
- Shorter shelf life once opened
- Limited availability
- More expensive
This brand has this list of ingredients:
- 100% Organic Class I Apples
Some other considerations
If you are trying to make informed food choices you might want to consider what packaging the Apple Sauce comes in.
Here are some pro’s and con’s of the typical packaging you will find when buying applesauce.
Glass Jars
- Keep’s your foods taste, aroma and flavour longer
- It’s inert, meaning there is no risk of harmful chemicals getting into your food.
- Its reusable, you can find hundreds of uses for empty glass jars.
- Can be endlessly recycled!
- It can break!
- Heavy, uses more fuel to transport.
- May not be recyclable at your home
- It’s more expensive to produce
Plastic Cups or Jars
- Keep’s your food fresher
- It’s more durable
- It’s lightweight and cheaper to transport
- It’s less expensive to produce
- One of the leading causes of pollution
- Can generally only be recycled once
- Not derived from sustainable materials
- Is generally not reusable
- The foil lid may not be recyclable
Plastic/Foil Pouches
- Keep’s your food fresher
- It’s more durable
- It’s lightweight and cheaper to transport
- It’s very convenient
- One of the leading causes of pollution
- Can generally only be recycled once
- Not derived from sustainable materials
- Not able to recycle at home
- Is not reusable
Hopefully you now have enough information to make an informed food choice about the apple sauce you will choose!
