Maraschino cherries are heavily processed, artificially dyed, and loaded with added sugar relative to their size. A single cherry contains only about 3 calories and 0.6 grams of sugar, which sounds harmless, but the real concerns aren’t about eating one. They’re about the chemicals used to strip, bleach, and re-color the fruit before it reaches your jar, and what happens when you’re eating handfuls of them on sundaes, in cocktails, and straight from the container.
How They’re Made
A maraschino cherry starts as a real cherry, but by the time it’s finished, very little of the original fruit remains intact. The process begins with soaking the cherries in a brine solution containing calcium chloride and sulfur dioxide. This strips away the cherry’s natural color, flavor, and much of its nutritional value, leaving behind a firm, pale, almost ghostly piece of fruit. The bleaching stage alone can take 5 to 10 days depending on temperature, and if the cherries don’t bleach evenly the first time, manufacturers use a secondary bleach with sodium chlorite to finish the job.
After bleaching, the cherries sit in a sulfur dioxide and lime brine for about two weeks to maintain their firm texture. Then they’re leached in water for 15 to 24 hours to wash out the chemicals before being soaked in a heavy sugar syrup and injected with artificial color and flavor. The end product is essentially a sugar-delivery vehicle shaped like a cherry. The natural antioxidants, vitamins, and fiber that make fresh cherries nutritious are largely gone.
The Sugar Problem
At 0.6 grams of sugar per cherry, one or two won’t move the needle. But maraschino cherries are rarely eaten alone. A typical sundae might have three to five, a Shirley Temple two or three, and it’s easy to snack through a dozen while making drinks. Ten cherries deliver about 6 grams of sugar, all of it added sugar from the syrup they’re packed in. The syrup itself is often spooned over desserts too, adding even more. For context, the American Heart Association recommends no more than 25 grams of added sugar per day for women and 36 grams for men, so a heavy pour of maraschino cherries and their syrup can account for a meaningful chunk of that limit.
Unlike fresh cherries, which contain fiber that slows sugar absorption, maraschino cherries deliver their sugar with nothing to buffer it. There’s no fiber, minimal vitamins, and essentially no nutritional upside.
Artificial Dyes and Their Risks
The bright red color of most grocery-store maraschino cherries comes from artificial food dyes, most commonly Red 40 (also called Allura Red AC). This dye has been linked to behavioral changes in children, particularly those with ADHD. Research shows that removing artificial dyes and sodium benzoate (a common preservative) from children’s diets significantly lowers symptoms of hyperactivity.
Red 40 also contains trace amounts of concerning compounds. It contains p-Cresidine, thought to be a carcinogen, and trace amounts of benzene, a known carcinogen that forms as a byproduct during manufacturing. The amounts are small, but for people who are sensitive to the dye, exposure can trigger histamine release, leading to headaches, hives, skin irritation, sneezing, watery eyes, and asthma flare-ups.
Some maraschino cherry brands have historically used a different dye, Red No. 3 (erythrosine). In early 2025, the FDA moved to revoke authorization for Red No. 3 in food under the Delaney Clause, which prohibits any color additive shown to cause cancer in animals. Studies found it caused cancer in male rats, and while the FDA noted that the mechanism doesn’t appear to occur in humans, the law required the ban regardless. Manufacturers have until January 2027 to reformulate. If your jar lists Red No. 3 on the label, that dye is on its way out of the food supply.
Preservatives and Sulfite Sensitivity
Sulfur dioxide, used in the bleaching and firming stages of production, is a sulfite. For most people, residual sulfites in the finished cherry aren’t a problem. But roughly 1 in 100 people are sulfite-sensitive, and among people with asthma, the rate is higher. Sulfite reactions can range from mild (headaches, flushing) to severe (breathing difficulty, anaphylaxis in rare cases).
Sodium benzoate, another preservative commonly found in maraschino cherries, has its own set of concerns. Beyond its association with hyperactivity in children, sodium benzoate can react with ascorbic acid (vitamin C) to form small amounts of benzene. This is more of a concern in beverages than in cherries, but it adds to the overall chemical load of a food that offers very little nutritional return.
What About “Natural” Alternatives
Not all cocktail cherries go through the bleach-and-dye process. Brands like Luxardo and Fabbri Amarena use a fundamentally different approach. Luxardo’s ingredient list is short: Marasca cherries, sugar, Marasca cherry juice, glucose, and flavors. There’s no bleaching step, no artificial dye, and the cherries retain their dark, natural color. Amarena cherries are packed in a thick, non-alcoholic syrup and tend to taste more like actual fruit.
These alternatives are still high in sugar, so they’re not a health food by any stretch. But they skip the artificial dyes, sulfur dioxide bleaching, and synthetic preservatives that make conventional maraschino cherries problematic. If you’re buying cherries for cocktails or desserts and want to avoid the chemical concerns, look for brands that list real fruit and sugar as the primary ingredients, with no color additives on the label. Fresh or frozen dark sweet cherries are the simplest swap if you want the flavor without any of the processing.