Where I Purchased This Zee Zees Applesauce

I purchased this Zee Zees applesauce from a school, at a la carte prices. The only difference between this product and the one you would get in retail is that this is a 4.5oz cup, and retail sells 4oz cups. The applesauce itself is exactly the same!

You can purchase the retail size from some grocery stores or online here.

First Impressions

This is your everyday, plain applesauce.

The cup is the same as any other applesauce cup – plastic cup with a foil lid. However, the Zee Zees applesauce brand does incorporate little characters onto each of their product’s packages, but we’ll come back to that.

Zee Zee’s features a character on each of its product packages. These little characters are designed to attract children to the product. While there is certainly evidence that this is effective, at least one study found that it is only effective for healthy foods when the children are familiar with the character.

This product features the character Zed.

Taste & Texture

I’m used to eating unsweetened applesauce, so it tastes like any other brand’s unsweetened version. The apples are plenty sweet on their own, and since there’s no artificial sweeteners either, there’s no lingering artificial flavor.

The texture of the Zee Zees applesauce is smooth. Kids tend not to like course textures, so this is a good plain applesauce.

Ingredient Highlights

Apples

Applesauce is just apples that have been peeled, cored, cooked, and pureed. You can tell from this ingredient label that this one doesn’t have much else.

This makes it a great alternative to an apple for kids at school, especially because their time at meals is so limited. They can eat an applesauce cup quicker than they could eat a whole apple.

Would we prefer they eat the apple since it still has a peel? The difference in nutrition is so small, you’re really splitting hairs at this point. There’s nothing wrong with kids choosing applesauce as their fruit, as long as you’re happy with the rest of the ingredients.

Also for schools, Zee Zee’s does commodity processing with apples, so if your state allows processing of apples (USDA code 110149), then check that out!

Ascorbic Acid

Don’t be scared of this one! As the label states, ascorbic acid is just vitamin C.

You know how when you cut an apple it turns brown? That’s due to oxidation from when the flesh hits the oxygen in the air. 

You might already know that you can prevent this oxidation by dipping the freshly cut apples into lemon or pineapple juice. This works because they’re acidic. The formal name of vitamin C is ascorbic acid, which is also acidic.

While Zee Zees applesauce gets to boast on their website that their products contain 100% vitamin C, it’s main benefit is preventing your applesauce from turning a yucky shade of brown.

Nutrition Facts

I’ll highlight just a couple nutrients here.

Dietary Fiber

Your typical small apple, with peel, contains 3-4g of fiber, while this applesauce contains 2g of fiber.

The difference comes from the peel, which is a good source of insoluble fiber. The flesh of the apple, which is the part used to make applesauce, contains a significant amount of soluble fiber. Both types of fiber are important to the body, but applesauce is mostly only providing the one type.

As previously mentioned, I am not too concerned with kids choosing applesauce, as long as it’s just one of many fruits in their diet. 

Total Sugars

You’ll note on the label that there are 13g of total sugars in this applesauce cup, but that includes 0g of added sugars.

As an unsweetened applesauce, they haven’t added any sugar to the product, but apples do contain naturally occurring sugars in the form of fructose.

Our bodies do need carbohydrates to function, so these naturally occurring sugars aren’t anything to worry about, as long as you’re consuming them in appropriate quantities. And this 4.5oz portion of applesauce is a good size.

School Uses

Since each 4.5 oz cup credits as a 1/2 cup fruit, this would be an option for the breakfast or lunch program.

Since it’s not at least 3/4 cup, it wouldn’t be a great pick for the afterschool snack program, unless you wanted to serve another 1/4 cup of fruit with it.

I would encourage schools to choose a plain unsweetened version, like this one, to offer on a regular basis.

This product is commodity processable, so if your state allows you to process apples, USDA code 110149, you could turn commodity apples into applesauce.

I mentioned earlier that Zee Zee’s features little characters on their products to help attract them to children. To make it more effective, schools could incorporate the character Zed in the lunchroom. Simple acts, like pointing it out to children, could help make this applesauce more appealing to kids.

Recommendation

I’m an advocate of using unsweetened applesauce whenever possible.

Some individuals who are used to sweet applesauce may not be willing to switch because their taste buds are so accustomed to the sweet version.

My advice to those individuals is – that’s ok. Just be sure you choose that applesauce with added sugars as just one of the many fruits you consume and try to consume more of those fruits that don’t have added sugar. But I’ll never tell an individual to eat something they don’t like.

My advice for schools is different.

Schools are feeding a large group of kids. Some of those kids at unsweetened applesauce at home. Some eat sweetened applesauce. 

Sure, the kid who eats sweetened applesauce at home probably won’t love the unsweetened version at school.

However, picture that kid whose parents have given them unsweetened applesauce their whole life, they like it, and now they get the sweet version at school. Because kids have a predisposition to all things sweet, that kid will likely stop liking the unsweetened applesauce their parents serve at home.

That’s why I recommend that schools go with an unsweetened version, like this Zee Zees applesauce, and offer it as one choice among many unsweetened fruit options (like this unsweetened strawberry applesauce). That way, if some kids don’t like unsweetened applesauce, they will have other options to choose from.

Suggested Specifications

For school nutrition programs looking to procure this item, here is a suggested specification:

Applesauce, unsweetened, 4.5 oz cup

Comparable Products for “or Equal” Consideration

• Mott’s #10065615
• Knouse/Musselman’s #11840
• Peterson Farms #ASA10001
• Tree Top #104878
• Burnette’s #4239661532

Additional Descriptors to Consider

All of the above items have the same ingredient lists and their nutrition panels are very similar, so I have no other additional descriptors you could add.

Therefore, if you are not going to accept any of the above items as an equal, I recommend having a good reason so that you can defend your decision. This could be documented through taste tests with students or previous bad experiences.