The fastest-growing line of "lite" food products in the '90s, according to the Calorie Control Council, is sweet baked goods.
And are they ever sweet: Extra sweetening seems to be the major flavor tradeoff in reduced-fat products. Another major change is the texture of fat-reduced cookies and cakes; it's usually best described as spongy.Sure enough, sugar is the first ingredient listed on the new Stella D'oro fat free Fruit Slices cookies. Unofficial office taste test found two who liked these cookies, nine or 10 who did not. Too dry, most said. "Taste's like a bad Fig Newton," one thought. "Taste's like fruitcake," said another.
One outstanding example, financially speaking, of "lite" success is Nabisco's line of SnackWell's Cookies. Nabisco has launched a new one in the line, SnackWell's Fat Free Double Fudge Cookie Cakes. The product will be available first in the Northeast, for $1.99 a box.
A sample tasted like a bland cake-brownie with a dab of semi-sweet chocolate frosting as a bull's-eye on each plump, round cookie. But some taste testers found this cookie absolutely inedible.