bear claws low sugar

Children’s snacking brand Bear is launching a product it claims has the lowest sugar levels in the kids’ fruit snack market.

Going into Sainsbury’s from 4 October ahead of a wider rollout, Bear Claws are 100% fruit and veg, with veg making up a third of each recipe. They will be sold in packs of five 18g bags (rsp: £2.49) in four flavours: Strawberry & Butternut; Apple, Pear & Pumpkin; Blackcurrant & Beetroot; and Mango & Carrot.

Bear - which also produces lines including Fruit Paws, Yoyos and Fruit Nibbles - has set its sights on Claws being worth £10m in retail sales value within three years. The business also revealed it has £4.5m marketing in place for the overall brand in 2016.

Each 18g Claws serving contains 5.4g of natural sugar, which Bear founding partner Giles Brook said was less than a fresh apple, and 40% below the average for the children’s fruit snack category.

The launch of Claws comes four months after Action on Sugar published a study that found 80 of 94 processed fruit snacks had more than the 47g per 100g of sugar in Haribo’s Starmix, and that some contained as much as four teaspoons of sugar in a recommended portion. A number of Bear products were named in the report.

Brook claimed some rivals were using bulking agents to bring down sugar levels, but said Bear was committed to “genuinely nutritious, trustworthy solutions”.

“We’re making sure consumers and retailers are given the choice needed to enable strong growth in the category,” he added.