The Untold Truth Of Fruit Gushers

They're colorful, they're delicious, they're both chewy and juicy at the same time, and also a bit mysterious. They're Fruit Gushers. This prepackaged snack was born in the early '90s, and is sold under the sub-brand Betty Crocker (who reports to General Mills). While this little gem-like treat — filled with a juicy center — is labeled as a fruit snack, Fruit Gushers seem to fall in line more with the candy side of the world, as confirmed by Redditors. While they're not considered the healthiest snack, Fruit Gushers have been a mainstay on shelves for over 30+ years and continue to be enjoyed by millennials (who grew up with them) and their offspring.

Though their parent brand, General Mills, has experienced a few hiccups regarding Fruit Gushers and friends (via Reuters) in the past, the snack is just too good to ignore (so good that competitors have even tried to imitate it). It's a brightly colored treat that has left a major imprint on pop culture, and continues to do so by, you know, playing nice and working together with other big players in consumer pop culture.

You would think that a fruit snack with the consistency of gummy candy would most definitely contain some type of gelatin or artificial dyes (which, according to ChoosingNutrition, can be made from insects or tested on animals before they make it to the fruit snack factory). But the answer is surprisingly no. Unlike some of their competitors, Fruit Gushers contain no animal products and use "safe" food dyes that are derived from plants, thus making them a 100% vegan snack. To get their gummy-like texture, Fruit Gushers are made using the gelatin substitute agar-agar, which comes from seaweed (via CrueltyFreeReviews). This avoids the use of gelatin which is made out of collagen, a protein found in animal skin and bone (via Britannica).

When it comes to being gluten-free, all Fruit Gushers contain these primary ingredients (via EWG.org): sugar, corn syrup, dried corn syrup, pear purée concentrate, modified corn starch, fructose, maltodextrin, and palm oil. None of these ingredients contain gluten, which Johns Hopkins University writes is a naturally occurring protein commonly found in plants and some grains. That means Fruit Gushers are considered celiac safe.

According to Cedars Sinai, most childhood allergies are caused by at least one of the following culprits: cow's milk, eggs, wheat, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, fish, and shellfish. Fruit Gushers contain none of these, which deems them allergen-safe and a popular snack option for elementary school children.

When you think of Fruit Gushers, you don't necessarily think of them as meshing with the salty or savory side of the food world. They obviously need to pair with something that's sweet, right? But where there's a will, there's a way. Take, for example, these sweet n' sour meatballs from food blogger Melinda Strauss. Fruit Gushers are encapsulated with Italian sausage and then simmered in a zesty marinara sauce. You could also take it one step further and mix sweet, sour, and extra spicy by using chorizo instead (via Tbsp). Theoretically, it could work, because gushers seem to hold up well and are super sweet. Nothing says "yum" like biting into a meatball and seeing it ooze blue, right?

One pairing that seems to work quite well is pairing Fruit Gushers with alcohol. PopSugar has created champagne-mimosa-filled Fruit Gushers with their own homemade recipe. Seeing that we humans have an affinity for foods that encapsulate different fillings — cream-filled donuts, molten lava cake, stuffed grape leaves, burgers stuffed with cheese, scotch eggs, alcohol-filled chocolates — why not get adventurous and create a fruit gusher that's geared towards adults?

It's safe to say that Fruit Gushers are pretty much the fruit snack of millennials. That's probably one of the reasons why Welch's attempted to rip off of the liquid-filled fruit snack and make a version that's geared towards, well, the ones who grew up with Gushers. According to CandyIndustry.com, Welch's released its adult version of Fruit Gushers in March 2021, under the name "Juicefuls." Each piece is opaque, so you can see the juice inside (which is kind of weird) and are made with real fruit. They come in three different varieties: Island Splash, Berry Blast, and Mixed Fruit. Coincidentally, Fruit Gushers have similar flavors, like Tropical Fruit, Sour Berry, and Flavor Mixers.

FoodRanker.com gives Juicefuls favorable (flavor-able?) reviews, but notes that the odd gummy texture might be a little off-putting and challenging for people to get through. NutrionValue.org notes that Juicefuls have a substantially lower sugar content (though the portion size is smaller, too). The adult fruit snack is also gluten-free, but unfortunately, not suitable for vegans or vegetarians because it contains gelatin, as reported by EWG.org.

Millennials grew up with some really odd television commercials, and the Fruit Gushers adverts were no different (because nothing says "weird" like a kid that eats a Gusher and turns into a giant talking fruit). In a nutshell (wrapper?), the concept for the fruit Gushers' commercials focused on tween and younger teenage actors parading across the television screen. Sometimes in groups, sometimes solo, and sometimes in a strange cartoony house with yellow walls and minimal furniture (via YouTube), each character consumes a single fruit Gusher, and their head then transforms into whatever flavor they ate.

So, if you ate a lime-flavored fruit Gusher, your head turned into a giant lime. Popped in a banana Gusher? Yup, you're a banana. Kind of makes you wonder what the kid who ate three or four at a time ended up looking like?

Another rather disturbing commercial involved a kid at the zoo who turned into a banana and somehow ended up inside the gorilla enclosure? Don't worry, it has a happy ending.