Every Rowntree's sweet sold in the UK broken down by sweet and by bag, and checked against NHS daily reference intakes for children aged 4 to 17.
Rowntree's is the sugar confectionery side of Nestlé's UK range, and it contains none of the chocolate the parent brand is better known for. Fruit Pastilles, Fruit Gums, Jelly Tots and Randoms are marketed heavily at children, often on fruit imagery, and several carry fruit juice from concentrate in the ingredient list.
That fruit content is worth understanding properly. Fruit juice from concentrate counts as free sugar under NHS guidelines in exactly the same way as added sugar, because the process of concentrating it releases the sugars from the cell walls that would slow their absorption in whole fruit. A sweet made with fruit juice is not nutritionally different from one made with sugar and flavouring — there is no fibre, no meaningful vitamin content, and no difference in how the sugar behaves once eaten.
The gum and pastille lines are built on sugar, glucose syrup and a gelling agent, with fruit juice from concentrate providing some of the flavour. The difference between a firm gum and a softer pastille comes from the gelling agent and moisture content rather than from the sugar concentration, so sweets that feel very different can carry near-identical figures per gram.
The smaller pieces are the ones that catch people out. Where a sweet is designed to be eaten by the handful rather than singly, the per-sweet figure looks negligible while a realistic portion carries a large share of a child's daily limit. Piece size, not product type, is what drives the difference.
Fat and protein are effectively absent across the range. Sugar confectionery of this type carries almost no fat, so the calorie figure tracks the sugar figure closely and the two can be read together — unlike chocolate, where fat drives much of the energy.
Sugar-free and reduced-sugar variants behave differently again. Where sweeteners replace sugar, the free sugar figure drops sharply while the calorie figure falls by less, because the bulking agents used still carry energy.
Each product page includes a full nutrition breakdown per sweet and per bag, portion size comparisons at 5, 10 and 20 sweets and full bag, age-adjusted NHS daily reference intake calculations for children aged 4 to 17, an interactive calculator for your child's specific age and gender, and a complete ingredient and allergen guide.
