Store-Bought Compotes: 4 to Avoid According to Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen (and Better Options to Choose)
Applesauce is a common snack in many homes, handy, sweet, and easy to pack. But Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen, a physician nutritionist, questions its healthy reputation in his book “Guide d’achat pour bien manger” (translated: “Buying Guide for Eating Well”). He notes issues with many commercial applesauces and offers guidance for choosing better options.
What’s Really in Commercial Applesauce
What looks like a simple fruit snack can be more complicated than it seems. According to Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen and dietitian-nutritionist Julie Boët, many store-bought compotes are ultra-processed. Boët says, “Their fiber content is often low because of grinding and filtration,” which raises the glycemic index and can cause quick blood sugar spikes when the product is eaten on its own.
Cooking also largely destroys vitamin C, reducing part of the fruit’s nutritional value. Ready-to-eat pouches, popular for on-the-go snacking, offer little benefit because they often lack fiber and several important vitamins. Dr. Cohen recommends eating fresh fruit instead to feel fuller and get more nutrients.
Products to Skip: A Closer Look
Dr. Cohen names four applesauce products:
- Materne’s Pom’ Potes 5 Fruits: Marketed as containing five fruits, but actually more than 80% apples. Each of the other four fruits appears at less than 0.28 oz, and the product includes an artificial aroma.
- Andros Dessert Fruitier Pomme Pruneau: Sold with the suggestion it will help digestion (thanks to prunes), but it only has 17% prune purée — and only 40% of that purée is actual prunes. It also has about twice the sugar of other compotes.
- Mule Bar’s Energy Banana Compote Organic: Half of this product is sugar syrup (50%), making it closer to sports products like Andros® Sport or Isostar® than to a straightforward fruit snack. Despite being organic, vegan, and gluten-free, it’s expensive and isn’t enriched with vitamins.
- Andros’ Apple-Vanilla Compote: Labeled with a Nutri-Score A, but it contains added sugars and only vanilla aroma instead of real vanilla. By contrast, a similar 3.53 oz Dessert Fruitier apple-vanilla pot from the same brand packs 94% apples and tastes much less sweet.
How to Pick Better Applesauce
Dr. Cohen advises choosing products labeled “no added sugars” and reading ingredient lists closely. He points to several better options:
- Andros’ Pomme Pruneau without added sugars
- Materne’s Dessert Fruitier in Pouch Apple-Strawberry-Passion with vitamins and zinc
- Andros’ Apples Chunks and Mango without added sugars
- Charles & Alice’s Apples Peaches without added sugars
Reading labels helps you spot marketing that sounds good but doesn’t match what’s inside. With more people grabbing snacks on the run, it’s important to watch for hidden sugars, low fiber, and misleading claims.
Thinking about these details can help you make healthier choices over time. Staying informed and checking labels at the grocery store lets shoppers pick snacks that match their nutrition goals.