Desserts from the fresh aisles are successful, but beware …
The fresh shelves of supermarkets abound with dairy, natural, fruity, vegetable, chocolate, caramel, vanilla, whipped cream, mousse, flans and more! We’re talking about dessert here rather than yogurt.
But to obtain irresistible taste, texture and appearance, manufacturers know how to do it and very often have massive recourse to sugar and additives. This was observed by “60 Million Consumers” in its January file in which more than 50 references were analyzed. Four families of fresh desserts were scrutinized: 13 chocolate mousse, 12 vanilla cream, 12 caramel cream and 13 vegetable desserts. Products that are easily found because they come from major brands or private labels. Some of them being organic.
The criteria for establishing the index: the composition of the product (additives, flavors, etc.), the presence or absence of eggs for the chocolate mousse (which, in the real recipe, must be the main ingredient), processed sugars and sweeteners for creams, calories, sugar and salt content, etc.
The first observation is not glorious since half of the references are made from a list of 10 or more ingredients! The only category containing no more than five is chocolate mousse. The additives are represented there in number, the majority of the desserts having at least 1 and only six references do without it completely!
As for the vegetable desserts, they do not stand out, far from it since they are essentially made of water. One of them even contains 75%! Between the acidifiers and the additives and the excess of sugar, some could even damage the teeth and cause ..; inflammatory bowel disease. The magazine even advises to consume it in small doses and to read the labels at all costs.
However, here are the four references that stand out with almost no additives and a limited list of ingredients.
Chocolate mousse category: Bonne Maman, intense black (16/20 – To find in the main supermarkets)
Vanilla cream category: Farm invitation, organic, Bourbon vanilla (15/20 – Find it at Cora, Match,…)
Caramel category: Bonne Maman, traditional baked recipe (16/20 – To find in the main supermarkets)
Vegetable desserts category: Carrefour, Chocolate soya, organic (14,5/20)
A good homemade dessert is also good like this crumble with red fruits and Greek yogurt ice cream.