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The Worst New Walmart Foods of 2021

Make a New Year’s resolution to avoid these new Walmart foods.

When your favorite grocery store adds new options to the shelves, fridges, and freezers, it's usually a cause for celebration. But for every exciting new product to be found, there are plenty you should leave out of that grocery cart. And that was very much the case with the new foods Walmart added this year.

In good food news, in the fall, Daring Foods began selling its plant-based chicken alternatives in some 3,000 Walmart stores, according to TechCrunch. Salty but delicious Takis Fuego Old El Paso Taco Shells came to Walmart as well. And so-called ghost kitchens in Walmart centers started churning out foods from chains like Nathan's Famous, The Cheesecake Factory, Cinnabon, and so many more restaurants, increasing food access, via Supermarket News.

In not-so-good news, Walmart also introduced these train-wreck products in 2021 as well. For more, check out 10 Biggest Changes Walmart Made This Year.

Bolt24 Antioxidant Drink

Bolt24
Walmart
1 Bottle: 45 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 230 mg sodium, 11 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 9 g sugar, 0 g protein

If you're actually working out and sweating hard, then one of these drinks is an OK choice, though water is still better. A Bolt24 will replenish some of the electrolytes you sweat out, albeit with more salts than needed. And take a look at the ingredient list: the second thing in here is sugar.

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Pillsbury Soft Baked Confetti Cookies

pillsbury confetti
Walmart
2 cookies: 140 calories, 6 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 80 mg sodium, 20 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 11 g sugar, 2 g protein

Sure, these cookies that are proudly "made with real butter" may taste good, but they are bad news nutrition-wise. Just two measly cookies net you almost a quarter of the amount of sugars you should consume in an entire day.

 The Best & Worst Cookies on Shelves in 2021—Ranked!

Mott's Animals Fruit Flavored Snacks

Motts animals
Walmart
1 pouch: 80 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 30 mg sodium, 19 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 9 g sugar, 0 g protein

While these new fruit snacks may be fat-free and low in sodium, they are high in sugar and completely devoid of any nutritional value beyond a decent serving of vitamin C. As with most "fruit snacks," this is candy going by another name–the first ingredient is corn syrup, the second is sugar, and the third is modified corn starch.

Sour Patch Snack Pack

snack pack sour patch
Walmart
1 snack: 100 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 65 mg sodium, 24 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 22 g sugar, 0 g protein

Positioned as some sort of fruit-adjacent snack, or at least as akin to pudding, which at least may have a bit of calcium in it, the new Sour Patch Snack Packs are essentially sugar goo. One serving has an appalling 22 grams of added sugars, which is 44% of the RDA for an adult. And adults are hardly the target demo here.

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Doritos 3D Crunch Spicy Ranch

Doritos spicy ranch
Walmart
27 pieces: 130 calories, 6 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 200 mg sodium, 18 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 1 g sugar, 2 g protein

High in sodium and on the fattier side, these chips would be low on the recommendation list were nutrition the only metric at play here. But the fact that they also have a mere 3.2-out-of-five star rating with customers is another red flag.

 We Tasted 6 Doritos Chips and This Is the Best Flavor

Pringles Scorchin' BBQ Chips

pringles bbq
Walmart
15 crisps: 150 calories, 9 g fat, 2.5 g saturated fat, 160 mg sodium, 16 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 1 g sugar, 1 g protein

These spicy new Pringles have a taste worthy of only 3.9 stars even with well over a hundred reviews posted and a nutritional profile hardly worthy of praise. They're rather fatty, rather salty, and you know you're going to eat two or three servings worth if you eat that first single chip.

 The Best & Worst Chips in 2021—Ranked!

Sunkist Orange Zero Sugar Orange Soda

sunkist orange
Walmart
1 can: 0 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 85 mg sodium, 0 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 0 g sugar, g protein

Sure, this soda may be free of calories, sugars, and fats, but it's packed with artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and artificial colors. Some studies have shown that diet sodas are not the free pass they seem to be. Drinking diet soda can lead to weight gain and have a negative impact on bone health.

 We Tasted 9 Diet Sodas & This Was the Best

Pocky Strawberry Cream Covered Biscuit Sticks

pocky strawberry
Walmart
1 box: 200 calories, 8 g fat, 4.5 g saturated fat, 90 mg sodium, 28 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 13 g sugar, 3 g protein

Packaged and marketed as a healthy snack, these Pocky Strawberry Cream Covered Biscuit Sticks are really just a sweet treat. They have 18% of your RDA for saturated fat and more than 18% of your daily allotment for sugars in one serving that's a mere 150 calories.

Ritter Sport Chocolate Butter Biscuits

ritter sport
Walmart
1 box: 210 calories,13 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, 90 mg sodium, 28 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 13 g sugar, 3 g protein

Granted, few people will think a product titled in part "Chocolate Butter Biscuit" is going to be all that healthy, but the eight grams of saturated fat per a mere 210-calorie serving is still enough to surprise, and not in a pleasant way.

 The Best Frozen Foods at Walmart in 2021

Applegate Natural Gluten-Free Uncured Beef Corn Dogs

applegate beef corn dogs
Walmart
1 Corn Dog: 210 calories, 11 g fat, 3.5 g saturated fat, 480 mg sodium, 22 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 7 g sugar, 6 g protein

As with foods in the vegan category, these new corn dogs prove that you can't trust a gluten-free product to be a healthy product. They are fatty, high in sodium, and they have a fair amount of added sugars, too.

 We Tasted 8 Hot Dog Brands & This Is the Best

JD's Vegan Apple Butter Ice Cream

JDs vegan
Walmart
1/6 Pizza: 220 calories, 8 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, 15 mg sodium, 42 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 21 g sugar, 1 g protein

Vegan ice cream is great for those who avoid consuming animal products but if you think of all vegan foods as healthy alternatives, then this one is going to dispel that way of thinking. This ice cream is loaded with sugar, and all of the fat to be found here is saturated fat because this product is mostly coconut cream.

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Hot Ones Boneless Chicken Bites

Hot ones boneless
Walmart
3 Pieces: 160 calories, 4.5 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 560 mg sodium, 15 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 0 g sugar, 13 g protein

We could cluck our tongues a bit at the fats here, but only a bit. The real issue is the sodium, which deserves a full-finger wag. A three-piece serving of these chicken bites has a staggering 560 milligrams of sodium, which means each approximate 50-calorie piece has about 185 milligrams of the stuff.

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Dr Pepper Sweet Cotton Candy

drpepper cotton candy
Walmart
27 pieces: 110 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg sodium, 28 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 28 g sugar, 0 g protein

You may as well just scoop spoonful after spoonful of sugar directly into your mouth rather than eating this cotton candy now sold at Walmart, there would really be no difference. Fat and sodium-free, it's really just pure sugar with some artificial colors and flavors thrown in.

Palermo's Rising Crust Breakfast Pizza

palermo's breakfast pizza
Walmart
1/6 Pizza: 350 calories,14 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 730 mg sodium, 42 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 4 g sugar, 14 g protein

Sure, a breakfast pizza may be kind of a brilliant idea, really, but eating this one is not so sharp. That's because on top of its heavy fat content, the sodium per serving is savage: there are 730 milligrams of sodium in one serving, which represents a third of your entire RDA. And remember 1/6 of the pizza is one serving. Who is going to be satisfied by that?

Read more about the best and worst products on the shelves:

The Best & Worst Store-Bought Dips—Ranked!

The Best & Worst New Sodas of 2021—Ranked!

The Best & Worst Baked Goods on Shelves in 2021—Ranked!

Steven John
Steven John is a freelancer writer for Eat This, Not That! based just outside New York City. Read more about Steven