Halloween is associated with the supernatural and getting scared. It also has an association with sweets, as children go from door to door seeking sugary treats. Originally treats were sweet cakes made with a mix of seasonal spices like cinnamon and nutmeg and eaten as offerings to free souls from Purgatory. These days fewer nutritional offerings lead the way.
Some of the common forms of treats contain high levels of sugar. Looking at the U.S. marketplace, Nerds Candy ranks highest as the candy with the highest sugar quantity, with a substantial 93g of sugar per 100g.
Sour Patch Kids closely follows, with 80g of sugar, while Swedish Fish rank third, with 77g. This means that consuming just five of these small fish-shaped candies contributes to 46 percent of an adult’s daily added sugar intake.
Adults should have no more than 30g of free sugars a day, (roughly equivalent to 7 sugar cubes). Children aged 7 to 10 should have no more than 24g of free sugars a day (6 sugar cubes). Children aged 4 to 6 should have no more than 19g of free sugars a day (5 sugar cubes).
Twizzlers stand out as the lowest-sugar option this Halloween, with only 38g of sugar per 100g. Even this represents a very high level of unnecessary calories.
These figures come from the company Snusboss, who analysed over 50 popular Halloween ‘candies’ (sweets) to uncover which products contained the most sugar per 100 grams. The data has been passed on to Digital Journal.
The top ten worst offenders are:
| Rank | Product name | Sugar content per 100 grams |
| 1 | Nerds Candy | 93 |
| 2 | Sour Patch Kids | 80 |
| 3 | Swedish Fish | 77 |
| 4 | Candy Corn | 74 |
| 5 | Skittles | 73 |
| 6 | Sugar Babies | 73 |
| 7 | Sweet Tarts | 73 |
| 8 | Charms Blow Pops | 72 |
| 9 | Werther’s Candy | 69 |
| 10 | Dum Dum Pop | 69 |
With an annual production of over 9 billion kernels, Candy Corn secures the fourth spot, containing 74g of sugar per 100g of the product. Skittles claims the fifth position meaning just 15g portion of Skittles contributes significantly, constituting 22 percent of an adult’s daily recommended added sugar intake.
Rounding out the top ten are Sugar Babies and Sweet Tarts, both containing just under 73g of sugar and Charms Blow Pops together with Werther’s and Dum Dum Pops each containing 69g of sugar.
Bubbling under are:
| Rank | Product name | Sugar content per 100 grams |
| 11 | Air Head | 69 |
| 12 | 3 Musketeers | 67 |
| 13 | York Peppermint Pattie | 67 |
| 14 | Tootsie Roll Pop | 65 |
| 15 | M&Ms (Original) | 63 |
| 16 | Rolo Candy | 63 |
| 17 | Heath Bar | 61 |
| 18 | Mars Bar | 61 |
| 19 | Jolly Ranchers | 61 |
| 20 | Toblerone Bar | 61 |
Any one for an apple? A Halloween toffee one, of course…
