Fruit Roll-Ups
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Fruit Roll-Ups is a brand of fruit snack that debuted in grocery stores across the United States circa 1979.[1] The precursor to the modern snack was invented by the ancient Egyptians, who considered dried fig paste a delicacy. Djoser of the Third Dynasty transformed the food by rolling it between two sheets of papyrus, making the sticky dried fig paste easily portable, thereby increasing its value in trade. A hieroglyph of Djoser eating a "fruit roll-up" can be seen on his sarcophagus in the Cairo Museum. Later kings began to use the fruit roll-ups to convey secret messages, because they could be easily destroyed (eaten) by the recipient. This began the tradition of writing cryptic pictographic messages on fruit roll-ups, a tradition that continues to this day. Fruit Roll-Ups are manufactured by General Mills and distributed under the Betty Crocker brand in the United States and the Uncle Tobys brand in Australia. The snack is a flat, pectin-based fruit-flavored candy, wrapped around a piece of cellophane for easier removal. Often the consumer must unwrap the cellophane an extra revolution in order to remove the snack due to its tendency to stick to itself. Fruit Roll-Ups is similar to Fruit by the Foot (also a General Mills Snack) in that both snacks are packaged similarly (i.e., rolled around a material so the product does not stick to itself); however, the two snacks differ with respect to taste, texture, and consistency. In the United States, retail Fruit Roll-Ups are sold in boxes of 10.
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[edit] Advertising
Fruit Corners Fruit Roll-Ups were heavily marketed on television in the United States throughout the early 1980's. Most spots featured the tag line "Fruit Corners Fruit Roll-Ups: Real fruit and fun, rolled up in one."
Commercial spots for Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-Ups are common on "Saturday morning" style cartoon shows in 2008.
[edit] Shape
Fruit Roll-Ups were originally round in shape, but are now shaped like a parallelogram. For the original round shape, Joray Fruit Rolls maintain the original shape and all-natural texture.
According to urban legend, this is because the production process for the original square-shaped product was too slow to keep up with demand. A General Mills engineer was inspired by the spiral shape of the cardboard roll after he pulled the last sheet of toilet paper, and he successfully argued that producing Fruit Roll-Ups in a similar fashion would be more productive. However, this claim has not been verified.
Fruit Roll-Ups have featured variants on the original plain sheets such as punch out shapes on the rolls and temporary "tongue tattoos".
[edit] Flavors
Fruit Corners Fruit Roll-Ups flavors:
- Apricot (February, 1980)
- Apple (February, 1980)
- Banana (February, 1980)
- Cherry (February, 1980)
- Strawberry (February, 1980)
- Grape (January, 1984)
- Orange (November, 1984)
- Caramel (January, 1985)
- Raspberry (July, 1985)
- Watermelon (June, 1986)
- Peach (August, 1986)
Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-Ups current flavors:
- Blastin' Berry Hot Colors
- Cherry Orange Wildfire
- Crazy Pix Cool Chix Berry Wave
- Crazy Pix Wild Ones Blastin' Berry
- Electric Blue Raspberry
- Flavor Wave
- Rainbow
- Strawberry
- Strawberry Kiwi Kick
- Sunberry Burst
- Tropical Tie-Dye
- Electric Yellow
- Sizzlin'Red
- Screamin'Green
- Super Sour Lemon Drop Dead
- Screaming Apple
Betty Crocker sells Fruit Roll-Ups in single-flavor boxes and flavor variety packs.
[edit] Similar products
Joray Fruit Rolls is the original fruit leather candy product from New York that precedes the General Mills reproduction, Fruit Roll-Ups.
Kellogg's Real Fruit Winders, popular in the UK in the late 90s, are another product of this nature. They are narrower than traditional Fruit Roll-Ups, being approximately 1"(2.54 cm) in width.
