Raspberry jam with no added sugar and good for vegetarians too! (St Dalfour All Natural Raspberry Fruit Spread)

Member Name: SusanLesley

Product:	St Dalfour All Natural Raspberry Fruit Spread
Date:	25/07/09 (207 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Taste, texture, OK for diabetics and vegetarians

Disadvantages: Slightly expensive but well worth the money

When my mom was first diagnosed with Type Two Diabetes many years ago I helped her to find products with lower sugar values and since she loved jam I had a challenge on my hands for that one! I found a range of spreads made by St Dalfour, which are effectively jams and are available in many different flavours.

I have since been diagnosed with Type Two Diabetes so this product is still as useful now as it was then.

The spread can be found in the supermarket or health food shop and is on the shelf with the jams and marmalades. The supermarkets usually stock flavours such as strawberry, raspberry, thick cut orange, apricot and blackberry which are the ones that I would consider to be the more common flavours of jam. In more specialist shops I have seen raspberry & pomegranate, four fruits, blueberry, orange & ginger, black cherry, blackcurrant and golden peach. So you see there is an extensive range of flavours to be found. When mom was alive she tried quite a few of them as she loved all sorts of flavours of jam and I used to try and find the unusual ones for her. She never did find one that she didn't like!

I did try the thick cut orange flavour in place of marmalade but it didn't taste as good as Golden Shred. I do like marmalade so I'll stick to Golden Shred and just have it occasionally!

This spread isn't cheap when compared to 'ordinary' jam as it is £1.33 for a jar containing 284g but in this case you really do get what you pay for.

So back to the jam shelf in the supermarket - you'll find the St Dalfour spread in tall slim glass jars with a screw top. The one I about to describe to you is the raspberry flavour.

The label on the front of the jar is very smart and classy. It has the words 'St Dalfour France Rhapsodie de Fruit High Fruit Content Spread Raspberry'. There is then a small picture of yummy looking raspberries and the words 'no added sugar' and 'an old French recipe of delicious raspberries sweetened only with fruit juice concentrate'.

So you can see why we chose to try this particular spread initially for mom, but as I describe the taste you'll see why we have carried on using it since!

As I removed the screw top with that satisfying 'pop' that let me know the jar had been sealed and not tampered with, the lovely fragrance of raspberries wafted out.

The spread looked firm which is always a good start - I can't stand runny jam.

The taste of this spread is superb! It tastes of raspberries (you don't say!) and it is sweet enough but not synthetically sweet as some jams are. In fact to me the taste is perfect. The raspberry flavour was always one of mom's favourites.

I admit that I don't eat much jam but I do make a batch of jam tarts when my sister comes to visit as they are her favourite and my mother in law often makes us a sponge cake and I sandwich the two halves together with raspberry jam. In both of these cases this spread is ideal and the texture and taste are both spot on! It also tastes nice in rice pudding and with natural yoghurt.

Now we'll get on to the nutritional information and first a list of what this spread does NOT contain:-

Additives, artificial sweeteners, colours, preservatives or flavours, GM ingredients, gluten, maize and monosodium glutamate. It has no added sugar.

It is suitable for both diabetics and vegetarians.

In fact the only ingredients contained in the spread are raspberries, unsweetened grape juice concentrate, lemon juice and pectin as a gelling agent.

Every 100g of spread contains the following:
Calories 224
Protein 0.8g
Carbohydrate 61g
Of which sugars 56g
Fat 0.4g
Fibre 3.5g
Salt trace

In conclusion I would definitely recommend St Dalfour spreads and not only for us diabetics! The price might be a bit on the high side but the packaging, smell, texture and taste are great so it's well worth it!

Summary: The best raspberry jam for diabetics!