WALDEN FARMS HONEY DIJON VINAIGRETTE DRESSING

Zero calories, zero fat, zero sugar…. Sounds like a dream come true, doesn’t it? How bad could it be? With no bad stuff in it I thought it would be possible to just drink it like water and pour as much on your salad as you liked. Anyone conscious of their weight or health would have to pay attention to this dressing. With much anticipation I tried this Honey Dijon Vinaigrette from Walden Farms.

I smelled the open bottle first. The smell was reminiscent of eggs and mayonnaise (notice I said “reminiscent” since neither is contained in this dressing). My first taste was from sticking my finger in the bottle and putting it to my lips. Not too bad I thought; very weak but not offensive. I tried it on a tossed salad and when I got through eating I thought – what was the use of that? This is pretty much the conclusion I came to – why bother? The dressing is creamy, but it is watery and thin. You get finished eating it and can’t remember what you were eating. There is almost no taste at all. There is no after-taste and that is good but that’s about the best you can say about it. I keep going back to try it again by tasting the dressing alone and get the same impression- there is a hint (just a hint) of Dijon mustard but that is all. It is so weak the taste is overwhelmed by a bland lettuce like iceberg. It keeps your salad from being dry but that is about all.


The list of ingredients should clue you in to the taste of this dressing: “Purified Triple Filtered Water” is the main ingredient followed by apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, Dijon mustard, cellulose gel, onion, garlic, beta carotene, xanthan gum, propylene glycol alginate, sodium benzoate, food color and sucralose. Not too much to object to here. Don’t expect to get many vitamins or minerals from the dressing either because there are none supplied in this product. Their Web site is not informative; it is mainly a shopping site where you can order salad dressing and other of their products. It took me a few clicks to actually find any information about the dressings other than a couple of videos from a television show in Houston. When I clicked on “More Information” I was just taken to another page that produced the same PR rhetoric that is displayed on the bottle and no new data.

I used this dressing on my salads for several lunches. I applaud Walden Farms for producing dressings that contain no calories, fat, or sugars and I don’t want to be too hard on them. They sell several other dressings and I can only hope that their taste is bolder than this one. I am anxious to try the different flavors but for now I’m not in any hurry to use the Honey Dijon Vinaigrette again.

Taste Rating = 3 bottles
Overall Rating = 3 bottles
Style Category = Honey Mustard
Fat Category = fat free
Calorie Category = no calorie
Nutritional Category = none
Sodium Category = med

Wishbone Light Honey Dijon

This dressing from Wishbone used to be called “Just 2 Good” but it is not. This dressing has more of a sweet taste than others based on Dijon mustard. This taste is more like a honey mustard dressing because there is no “zip” to it. The taste is not bad just kind of weak. It seemed that I had to use more to be able to taste the dressing or it would be overpowered by even a weak salad.

The calories in this dressing are not too bad (50) and fat calories = 20 but as I mentioned above I tended to add more than the proper serving size in order to be able to taste the dressing. The ingredient list is pretty much on par with the other however in the list of leading ingredients are high fructose corn syrup, sugar and honey. These are 3 of the top 6 ingredients and lead to the 6g of sugars and 8g total carbs.

This dressing is a good choice if you like a sweet tasting honey Dijon dressing. It is not as sweet as a Catalina type dressing but more than usual for a Dijon dressing. The sodium of not too bad (250 mg/10%) and if you can stick to the serving size it is fairly good on calories.

Taste Rating = 5 bottles
Overall Rating = 5 bottles
Style Category = Honey Mustard
Fat Category = low fat
Calorie Category = low calorie
Nutritional Category = none
Sodium Category = med low