Is Cranberry Sauce High In Sugar And Are Any Naturally Sweetened?

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Is cranberry sauce high in sugar and are any naturally sweetened? Cranberry sauce. You know the jar of sweet red stuff that we only get out of the cupboard at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I personally love the stuff and think it is essential for the holiday season (chances are if you are reading this you do too). We may not eat it all the time, but does anybody actually know how much sugar is in cranberry sauce? Is cranberry sauce high in sugar? And is the sugar content of whole cranberry sauce and jellied cranberry sauce similar? And most importantly, which cranberry sauces are lowest in sugar? Make sure to read right to the end to find out my number one recommendation for a cranberry sauce (spoiler alert – it is sweetened with apple juice concentrate).

Let’s dig in, is cranberry sauce high in sugar, and are any naturally sweetened?

How Much Sugar is in Cranberry Juice?

As a general rule, the majority of cranberry sauces, both whole berry and jellied contain 24g of total sugar per ¼ cup serving. Most cranberry sauces are sweetened with sugar or high fructose corn syrup, but there are some that are sweetened with fruit juice.

Before I continue, if you are also interested in the sugar content of that other sweet sauce in our lives – apple sauce then make sure to check out the following post I wrote – Does Apple Sauce Have A Lot Of Sugar And Which Are Lowest In Sugar? Another post you may be interested in is the following post I wrote on the best zero sugar jams and jellies – 14 Best Zero Sugar Jellies & Jams.

Ranking Cranberry Sauce Brands Based on Sugar Content

In this section, I will rank the sugar content of seven different cranberry sauce brands to help you pick the best low-sugar option. The list goes in descending order from highest to lowest.

1. Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce – 24g of Total Sugar

*Sweetened with high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup*

First up on this list is cranberry sauce from Ocean Spray. Now I am no stranger to Ocean Spray cranberry products, having looked at the sugar content of their cranberry juices in both of the following posts – The Sugar-Free Cranberry Juices You Need To Know About and Is Cranberry Juice High in Sugar? Now it’s time to look at the sugar content of Ocean Spray’s whole berry cranberry sauce.

Ocean Spray cranberry sauce is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup. It contains 24g of total sugar per 1/4 cup – all 24g are added.

2. Gefen Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce – 24g of Total Sugar

*Sweetened with cane sugar*

Gefen Whole Berry Sauce has the same total sugar content at 24g of sugar per ¼ cup serving. 23g of these sugars are added from cane sugar. A lot of cranberry sauces are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, so Gefen really promotes the fact theirs is not sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.

3. Amazon Fresh Jellied Cranberry Sauce- 24g of Total Sugar

*Sweetened with high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup*

So far, I have looked at a couple of the biggest whole cranberry sauce brands which contain 24g of total sugar. But how about jellied cranberry sauce? Is the content of jellied cranberry sauce different? Well, Amazon Fresh Jellied Cranberry sauce also contains 24g of total sugar per 1/4 cup serving. 23g of these sugars are added from high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup.

4. 365 by Whole Foods Market Jellied Organic Sauce Cranberry – 24g of Total Sugar

*Sweetened with high fructose corn syrup*

365’s jellied cranberry sauce also contains 24g of total sugar. 21g of these are added, and the sweetener used is high fructose corn syrup.

5. Simple Truth Organic Jellied Cranberry Sauce – 24g of Total Sugar

*Sweetened with organic sugar*

Simple Truth’s organic jellied cranberry sauce also contains 24g of total sugar.

At this point, I think it’s safe to assume that most jellied cranberry sauces contain in the region of 24g of total sugar per 1/4 cup serving. Of these 24g, 21g are added and the sweetener used is organic sugar.

6. Rigoni di Asiago Fiordifrutta Organic Cranberry Fruit Spread – 24g of Total Sugar

* Sweetened with apple juice concentrate*

Now let’s move on to the most exciting part of this article – a cranberry sauce that is sweetened with apple juice concentrate.

Yes, that is right – sweetened with apple juice concentrate.

Rigoni di Asiago Fiordifrutta Organic Cranberry Fruit Spread is instead sweetened with apple juice concentrate. Okay, it may be marketed as a “spread” rather than a sauce – but it still serves the same purpose. There are 7g of total sugar per 20g serving of this cranberry spread, 5g of which are added. If pro-rated to make this comparable to the above cranberry sauces, this equates to 24g of total sugar (surprise surprise) per ¼ cup serving, 17g of which are added.

If you want to try this apple juice-sweetened cranberry spread, you can from Amazon here.

7. 365 by Whole Foods Market, Whole Berry Organic Cranberry Sauce – 22g of Total Sugar

*Sweetened with organic sugar*

Above I establish that there are 24g of sugar in 365’s jellied cranberry sauce. But what about their whole berry sauce? Well, there is actually slightly less sugar at 22g of total sugar, 20g of which are added – making this the lowest total sugar cranberry sauce on this list. The sweetener used in 365’s whole berry cranberry sauce is organic cane sugar.

My Personal Recommendation for A Naturally Sweetened Cranberry Sauce?

If you are watching your sugar intake, I would definitely recommend Rigoni di Asiago Fiordifrutta Organic Cranberry Fruit Spread. Yes, it may have the same total sugar content as most cranberry sauces but at least it is sweetened with apple juice and not high fructose corn syrup. If you want to try it you can on Amazon here.

Sugar In Cranberry Sauce F&Q

How Much Sugar is in Jellied Cranberry Sauce?

As a general rule, there are 24g of total sugar in a ¼ cup serving of jellied cranberry sauce.

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Is Cranberry Sauce High in Sugar And Are Any Naturally Sweetened? – The Final Bite

Is Cranberry Sauce high in sugar and are any naturally sweetened? What have we learned from the above? Well, when it comes to cranberry sauce you can expect that most cranberry sauces whether jellied or not come out to around 24g of sugar per serving. The lowest-sugar cranberry sauce I found was 365’s Whole Berry Organic Cranberry Sauce which contained 22g of sugar. My personal pick was entry number 8 – Rigoni di Asiago Fiordifrutta Organic Cranberry Fruit Spread. Whilst this entry still contains 24g of sugar per serving it is sweetened with apple juice instead of cane sugars or high fructose corn syrup.

And Remember…