Wendyl wants to know: RJ's Licorice Allsorts Collection

RJ's Licorice Allsorts Collection

RJ's Licorice Allsorts Collection — $10.99 for 800g

It's Christmas and that means our supermarkets fill up with lots of lollies. And we buy them in order to ensure that our homes are havens of sweet treats for our visitors over the holiday season.

But while they provide tempting bowls of bright colours and flavours, how are those achieved?

• Cane sugar - No surprises that the number one ingredient in a sweet is sugar. Per serving, which is five pieces of licorice allsorts, you will get 24.4g or 5.8 teaspoons of sugar.

• Glucose syrup (wheat/corn) - This is a liquid form of sugar, in this case taken from wheat and corn.

• Wheat flour

• Water Molasses - This is a common ingredient in lollies which provides a sweet flavour but also texture.

• Desiccated coconut - Coconut which has been dried.

• Corn starch (wheat/corn) - Technically corn starch would come from corn, but this also says wheat. Either way the starch will be used in the allsorts as a thickener.

• Palm kernel oil - Nice to see a producer being honest about the oil they are using instead of just listing it as "vegetable oil." Some people like to avoid palm oil because three-quarters of all palm oil comes from Malaysia and Indonesia where rainforests - housing the Bornean and Sumatran orang-utans and other flora and fauna - are being destroyed. Some palm oil is sustainable, however.

• Liquorice extract - This will be a natural flavour which is extracted from the roots of a licorice plant.

• Treacle - Another sweet ingredient. Treacle is made during the process of refining sugar.

• Gelatine - This gels the sweets together.

• Humectant (E422) - This is glycerine which is a natural carbohydrate alcohol. Humectants help keep food products moist.

• Rice bran oil - This oil is extracted from the germ and inner husk of rice

• Salt - Not too much salt in here. You will get 26.8mg per serving.

• Aniseed oil - Another natural flavour taken from the anise plant.

• Colours (E102,129,133) - Both Tartrazine (102) and Allura Red (129) were included in a voluntary phase-out called for by Britain's Food Standards Agency and a European Union-wide health warning must now be put on any food or drink that still contains these colours, as they are thought to cause hyperactivity in some children. Brilliant Blue (133) is an artificial flavour which has been the topic of many studies, most recently by the European Food Safety Authority and is currently allowed in foods.

• Acidity regulator (E330) - This is citric acid.

• Vanillin (artificial vanilla flavour) - Again, nice to see a producer being upfront about the fact that vanillin, despite sounding natural, is actually artificial.

• Flavours (artificial lime, orange, raspberry and banana) - Good to see the artificial flavours clearly pointed out.

Highlights

• Three artificial colours.
• Five artificial flavours.
• Uses palm oil.

My recommendations

You'd have to be a fairly sorry sort of person to ban sweets and lollies at Christmas time.

But in the few years I have been writing this column, some producers have made an effort to make lollies without using artificial flavours and colours.

Select, the Countdown brand, has released candy canes this year with no artificial colours or flavours so pause to read the label and make an informed selection.

Do you have a food product you would like Wendyl to feature? Email wendylwantstoknow@gmail.com with suggestions. Unfortunately Wendyl cannot correspond with readers. Read Wendyl's columns on other food products here.