Jamba to unveil kids' meals - The Orange County Register

Jamba Juice is stepping up its efforts to appeal to young children, and their health-conscious parents, by introducing a line of children's meals.

The Emeryville-based company today is launching the meals, aimed at children age 4 to 8.

Here's one of the combinations in the new line of Jamba Kids meals: Cheesy Stuffed Pretzel with a smoothie.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAMBA JUICE

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The key ingredient is a smaller, child-size smoothie, at 9.5 ounces. Jamba's signature fruit-and-vegetable beverages come in three sizes: 16, 24 and 32 ounces. Even the smallest of those has a little too much sugar for a kindergartner: A 16-ounce Strawberry Raspberry Banana has 290 calories, 4.5 grams of fat and 40 grams of sugar.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's MyPlate nutritional guidelines (www.choosemyplate.gov), children ages 4 to 8 need only 1 to 1.5 servings of fruit a day. A cup of fruit works out to half a large apple, one small apple or one large orange. The website also says whole fruit is preferable to fruit juice.

Jamba touts its new meals as having 2.5 servings of fruit, the most of any "leading quick service restaurant kids meal."

There are four kinds of smoothies on offer: Strawberries Gone Bananas; Blueberry Strawberry Blast-off; Popp'in Peach Mango; and Berry Beet It, the only one in the bunch that includes vegetables. There's no added sugar, only the natural sugar (fructose) in the fruit.

The meals, which will cost $4.79, also come with a lunch item: a Cheesy Stuffed Pretzel or a Pizza Swirl with Turkey. The meals contain about 500 calories each.

"We wanted to make sure that the Jamba kids meals reflected Jamba's commitment to both nutritious products and products that people enjoy," Julie S. Washington, senior vice president and chief brand officer at Jamba Juice Co., said in a statement.

Jamba is expanding in the children's market. Its JambaGo venture has put hundreds of self-service smoothie machines in school cafeterias around the country.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2221 or lhall@ocregister.com

Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/kids-382370-jamba-fruit.html

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