Anyone who grew up in the United States in the past 40 years is certainly familiar with Fruit Roll-ups. The artificially flavored confection that was a delight for children and a horror for parents was probably responsible for many a cavity over the years.
The candy is now the center of a food craze among Israel's youth, with Israelis lining up to get their hands on them and black-market prices reaching 40 NIS for just one, according to Walla News.
Entrepreneurial travelers returning from countries where Fruit Roll-ups are regularly sold have even taken to smuggling large quantities of the confection in their luggage. In the past week, customs officers at Ben Gurion Airport caught several travelers attempting to sneak in with over 600 pounds of Fruit Roll-ups, worth several tens of thousands of NIS, in their suitcases. On Friday, one couple was caught with two suitcases containing 187Lb of the candy.
The cause of this craze that is bringing Israelis to rush stores and online sellers for these highly unhealthy snacks is a viral trend started on the popular video platform TikTok. The trend is simple: take a scoop of ice cream and wrap it in a Fruit Roll-up, which hardens immediately into a crunchy wrapper, and film yourself eating it. According to Buzzfeed, the dessert combination first made the rounds in October 2021 but only became viral recently.
The trend quickly reached Israeli youth and even caused the local Health Ministry to launch a campaign warning against the candy. "Who hasn't heard of this sweet and seen viral videos of it wrapped around ice cream flooding social media, and yesterday we even heard that they tried to smuggle a large amount into Ben Gurion Airport. So what is all the craze about? Before you join the trend and pay ridiculous prices for candy to wrap ice cream with, it pays to know about some of its ingredients," the Ministry wrote on Twitter. It then proceeds to list harmful ingredients such as sweeteners, palm oil, and artificial flavoring and explains the adverse effects that they can have on one's health.