Keto Food In The UK - Low Carb Jelly Powder

If you’re a low carber you might already know that the sliced bread in the infamous saying? I think I go unchallenged in saying that’s sugar free Jelly Powder / Jelly Crystals for us. Jelly turns everything into a sweet delicious pudding without the need for carbs nor a high calorie level which is usual with our high fats foods. Basically, it’s the holy grail to tame any sweet tooth without consequences on our diet plans and lifestyle. Amazing right?

A few weeks ago (this actually happened in 2015) I had a discussion with Hartley’s though as they changed the labels on their Sugar Free Jelly Crystals Sachets and basically implemented the sneaky food label rule which says that “If a serving contains less than 0.5g of a nutrient, that nutrient’s value can just be declared as ” providing now only nutritional values for the jelly powder if “prepared” following the instructions, which, would consider only making jelly pots, and 4 out of a sachets. Us low carbers are much more creative than that! The previous labelling had both values “per 100g as sold” and “per 140ml prepared” which basically meant ¼ of a sachet. The values per 100g sold of course allowed us to work around how much carbs were in a sachet and therefore how many carbs had our portions independently from how we decided to include the jelly powder in our recipes.

Hartley’s customer service was really nice and keen though, and they went the distance by giving me a call to explain the changes were due to the fact the previous labelling was considered “confusing” by some customers. Namely they received many enquiries stating “how can it be sugar free if it has 17g carbohydrates per 100g?”. I know, I know, not everybody is as well trained reading labels as we are, and so, after a while Hartley’s tried to explain that every sachet contains 11.5g of powder (1.7g carbs) and that still needs to be split into portions.

Hoping now that Hartley’s will take on my suggestion to have nutrition labels reporting values “per serving as prepared” but also “per 11.5g sachet of product as sold”, I am now tracking ingredients and nutritional values for all sugar free jelly powders available to us UK low carbers

HERE'S A LINK TO GET HARTLEYS INTERNATIONALLY ON MOST AMAZON STORES. IT'S A BIT PRICIER BUT IT NOT AVAILABLE IN YOUR COUNTRY HERE'S YOUR OPTION http://geni.us/hartleys

Hartley’s Jelly Sugar Free - 90p per 2x11.5g sachets at Sainbury's (£1 everywhere else)

No Maltodextrin! Yay! Also biggest variety in flavours, huge discrepancies between carb values for different flavours so beware, however they still have the lowest carb count for flavour compared to any other Uk brand. To this day, they are my favourite brand for value for money cause they come in double sachets (23g)

ingredients: Pork Gelatine, Acid: Adipic Acid, Flavourings, Acidity Regulator: Trisodium Citrates, Sweeteners: Aspartame, Acesulfame K, Acid: Fumaric Acid, Colours: Copper Chlorophyllin, Mixed Carotenes.

Lemon & Lime: 0.96g carbs per 11.5g sachet
Raspberry: 1.93g carbs per 11.5g sachet
Strawberry: 1.32g carbs per 11.5g sachet
Blackcurrant: 1 g carbs per 11.5g sachet
Orange: 0.3g carbs per 11.5g sachet

Angel Delight Jelly 60p per 11.5g sachet (50p when on offer)

This didn't exist when the first edition of this list was done in 2015, but they are now sold at least in Tesco, by single sachet and seem to not have Matodextrin the their ingredients, making it keto-friendly. However, like most they do not show value per 100g as sold but per portion made, which also just generically says less than 0.5g carbs per 140ml portion, so conservatively, count 2g carbs per sachet.

Ingredients: Pork Gelatine, Acids (Adipic Acid, Fumaric Acid), Acidity Regulator (Tripotassium Citrate), Colours (Beetroot Red, Annatto), Strawberry Powder (2%), Sweeteners (Acesulfame K, Sucralose), Natural Flavourings

Strawberry, Orange, Raspeberry: 2g carbs per 11.5g sachet

Simply Delish Zero Strawberry Jelly Sugar Free 90p per 8g sachet

Sainbury's seems the only one to sell it. The most expensive one and not too clear nutritional values on the label. Also discrepancies on ingredients. The official website declared its sweetener is Erythritol, the ingredients list in the UK shops that shown them declare aspartame. Neither thankfully show Maltodextrin which makes it keto friendly

Ingredients Vegetable setting agent (E407), Acidifying agents (E330, E332), non-nutritive sweeteners (sodium cyclamate (E952), Aspartame* (E951), sodium saccharine (E954), sodium bicarbonate (E500), Vitamin C (E300), Flavouring (E414, E1520, E300, E200). Food Colouring (E124), Anti - caking agent (E551). *contains phenylalanine. Tartrazine free.

Raspberry, Strawberry: declares less than 1g carbs per 140ml portion, so conservatively, count 2g carbs per sachet.

Asda Chosen by You “No added sugar” Flavoured Jelly- 33p per 11.5g sachet

On my NO list because they contain Maltodextrin and higher carb values than other available brands . However they still list their values for 100g of product as sold (they used to, not anymore), which earns my respect for the brand’s transparency.

Ingredients: Pork Gelatine, Citric Acid, Colours (Beetroot Red, Annatto), Natural Flavourings, Maltodextrin, Acidity Regulator (Sodium Citrates), Gelling Agent (Adipic Acid), Sweetener (Sucralose).

Strawberry: 2.42g carbs per 11.5g sachet
Raspberry: 3.46 carbs per 11.5g sachet
Orange: 2.8g carbs per 11.5g sachet

Delicious Desserts (Aldi) Sugar Free Jelly Crystals 23p per 11.5g sachet

Could be a runner up for best jelly in the UK after Hartleys for what concerns Carbs value, but alas, they also use Maltodextrin as a bulking agent for the Strawberry and Raspberry flavours.

Ingredients: Pork gelatine, gelling agent: citric acid, maltodextrin, flavourings, acidity regulator: trisodium citrate, colours: beetroot red, carotenes, sweetener:sucralose

Strawberry: 2.6g carbs per 11.5g sachet
Raspberry: 2.17g carbs per 11.5g sachet
Orange: 1.25g carbs per 11.5 sachet

Castello (Lidl) 49p per 11.5g sachet

I don’t have first hand experience with this brand unfortunately but at 49p per sachet they seem quite expensive to me. I couldn’t find an ingredient list nor values for the Orange and Raspberry flavour so I will look into it and get back to you. Alternatively if you have infos and/or the product itself and would like to chip in, by all means, drop me a line and I’ll add the info and credit you if you don’t mind :)

Strawberry: 1.71g carbs per sachet



So, now that you can make an informed decision on your jelly crystals supply, what are you going to cook with them? well I do have a few ideas coming :) Stay tuned :)

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