Jam Or Fruit Spread?

Is it a jam, a jelly or a fruit spread? There’s a lot to more to sugar-free jams than meets the eye, so we spoke to two very diff erent producers to discover what really goes into an artisanal jar of spreadable fruit.

- Raquel Neofit

There aren’t too many places to hide when you’re making a sugar-free jam or fruit spread so it’s imperative that the fruits used be at their prime and of the highest quality. Before we can even get into the making of fruity spreads to put on your toast that don’t have cane sugar added, we need to be clear about our terms.

CAN “JAM” BE SUGAR FREE?

First up, let’s clarify what constitutes a jam or a fruit spread. Australian regulations tell us that for a conserved fruit product to be classified and sold as jam it must contain cane sugar. So any preserved fruit product that doesn’t contain cane sugar must be labelled and sold as a fruit spread in Australia.

CEO of St Dalfour Australia, Sheldon Ross, believes this is actually very confusing for consumers. “We have lots of customers write to us saying, ‘We love your jam,’ because the phrase ‘fruit spread’ is not exactly in our vocabulary,” Ross tells us.

“I think it’s a beautiful perspective to use the words fruit spread,” he adds. “When we use those words we are actually talking about fruit. When we use the word

This is where it pays to seek out a natural artisanal fruit spread or conserve. You’ll find artisanal preserves contain 100 per cent fruit, or very close to 100 per cent fruit.

Nina Corrone, owner of Australian Strawberry Fields in Victoria and producer of Nina’s Homemade Preserves, wholeheartedly agrees with this thought. When her husband was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago, she made it her mission to create a jam that didn’t contain cane sugar and, after trying many options on the market, found the answer in organic stevia.

“I wanted a natural sweetener, nothing artificial, and one drop of stevia sweetens a whole jar,” Corrone says.