Hero Jam: 100% fruit – genuinely fruity or cleverly disguised as sweetener?

Jam is a classic breakfast staple – fruity, sweet, and familiar. The Hero brand advertises its strawberry jam with the slogan "100% made from fruit." But what exactly does that mean? And how natural is a product that uses "sugars from grapes"? A look at the list of ingredients and nutritional information provides some clarification.

Ingredients according to the manufacturer:

• Strawberries (50%)
• Apple fruit sweetness
• Sugars from grapes (glucose, fructose)
• Aronia juice concentrate
• Gelling agent (pectin)
• Lemon juice concentrate

50g of fruit was used per 100g of product —a good value. However, the impression that all the sweetness comes purely from fresh fruit is misleading.

What does “sugars from grapes” mean?

The name sounds harmless—even natural. But it's usually rectified grape juice . This undergoes extensive technical processing: grape must is decolorized, filtered, and concentrated, stripping it of its natural constituents. The end result is a mixture of glucose and fructose —a concentrated sweetener that acts like regular sugar in the body.

The fact is: These types of sugar differ little – or not at all – from traditional household sugar, neither in their effect on blood sugar nor in their calorie content.

A look at the nutritional values ​​(per 100 g):

Nutritional value	Crowd
energy	792 kJ / 187 kcal
Fat	0.3 g
of which saturated fats	0 g
Carbohydrates	45 g
of which sugar	40 g
Fiber	1.1 g
Protein	0.5 g
Salt	0 g

40g of sugar per 100g – that's a very high value, comparable to conventional jam. Even though this sugar comes from fruit, its effect on the body is identical to that of added sugar.

Conclusion: Natural? Yes. Healthy? Well, okay.

Hero jam scores points with its high fruit content and no artificial additives. That's a positive. But the slogan "100% fruit" is slightly misleading: The sugars it contains – even if they come from grapes – are highly concentrated, isolated sugars that are industrially produced. Metabolically, this makes little difference to table sugar – on the contrary: Pure fructose can even be harmful to the liver if consumed in excess.

In short:

• Hero jam contains 50% real strawberries – great!
• The sweetness does not come mainly from the whole fruit , but from processed glucose.
• 40% sugar content doesn’t exactly make them a “healthy” breakfast item.
• The label “100% fruit” is legally permissible – but misleading.

Tip for conscious connoisseurs: If you really want to avoid sugar, you should choose jams with less than 30 g of sugar per 100 g – or make your own jams with a significantly reduced sweetness.