Halloween is getting more popular here in Australia every year 🎃 Maybe it’s a big deal in your street, maybe nobody on your block does it, but chances are your kids have heard about it from school or friends.

It was never something we did as kids, and honestly, not something we care too much about. That being said, it is a bit of fun at the same time… so when our own kids wanted to join in on some street fun, or an event at school, we needed to figure out how to make this as additive-free as possible; we needed a plan…

Do we have to say no to trick-or-treating? 🤔

Nope. When Jo’s daughter asked to go trick-or-treating for the first time years ago, Jo didn’t want to stop her from joining in. So they set a few simple rules:

  • Her daughter could take whatever she was given.
  • When they got home, Jo sorted the haul into two piles: good (additive-free, or close to it) and bad (full of additives).
  • The bad pile (the additive-filled stuff) disappears, and the ‘switch-witch’ (aka Jo) replaced them with additive-free options.
  • Her daughter gets to enjoy the fun of it, and no one is missing out.

It worked really well.

And yes, we know the bad pile was binned. It feels wasteful, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to hand it to other people’s kids either. Knowing what’s in it, that was a hard no 🙅🏻‍♀️

Why bother making swaps? It’s just one night, right? 👀

For most kids, Halloween can stretch over a full week – there are the school events, maybe a bbq with friends, kids handing lollies to each other, teachers and sports coaches all handing out lollies … it all adds up when trying to avoid additives.

Sore tummies, headaches, trouble concentrating at school and meltdowns are the most common results of this sort of overload. So yeah, switching and ditching works for most families.

🔄 Simple Swaps

Here are some easy ones to start with:

❌ Brightly coloured lollies
✅ Strawberries dipped in white chocolate, with cacao nibs or tiny choc chips for eyes (hello, ghosts 👻)

❌ Popping candy
✅ Plain popcorn or homemade caramel popcorn in a white cup with a ghost face drawn onto it. Check out our caramel popcorn recipe in our Party Edition cookbook.

❌ Soft-centre chocolates (caramel, peppermint, strawberry)
✅ Plain chocolate, or homemade chocolates set in Halloween moulds

❌ Packet gummies
✅ Homemade gummies made with gelatin and juice, set in Halloween moulds. Check out our gummies recipe in our Lunchbox Edition cookbook.

❌ A bowl of mystery lollies at the door
✅ Halloween stickers, pencils or erasers

Please note the image above was generated using AI and should be used as a visual representation only.

What about food that isn’t junk food? 🍎

Here are our favourite ideas. They’re great for school, a Halloween party at home or a picnic in the park.

Peach pumpkins: Grab the little peach tubs with the clear plastic lid. Draw a pumpkin face on the lid with a permanent marker.

Mandarin pumpkins: Same idea. Draw triangle eyes and a squiggly mouth right onto the skin.

Spider capsicum and dip: Cut a capsicum in half, take the seeds out and slice it into long thin strips for legs. Stick 8 strips into a little bowl of dip and add two choc chips or sultanas for eyes. Our pumpkin and cashew dip is naturally orange, which makes it perfect for Halloween.

Broomsticks: Make sure your cheese sticks are preservative-free. Chop each one into 3 pieces (about 3cm each), fray the ends a little, and push a pretzel stick in.

Babybel monsters: Peel off the wax tab, keep the top and bottom wax on, and draw eyes on the top piece.

Banana ghosts: Cut peeled bananas in half, push an ice cream stick in, add sultana or choc chip eyes and freeze.

Mummy apples: Wrap an apple in a bandage from the first aid box, leaving a gap for the eyes. Use melted chocolate or sultanas on snapped toothpicks for eyes (keep an eye on little ones with the toothpicks).

Not feeling creative? Jump on Pinterest. It’s full of Halloween ideas, and there’s no shame in copying them. Jo found most of hers there 😂

Check out our Party Edition Cookbook 🎉

There are so many recipes in there that can be made into Halloween treats!

Sweet Biscuits: Pipe icing in the shape of cobwebs or spiders on top of the biscuits
Coconut Roughs: Pipe white and black icing on top in the shape of eyeballs
Cake Pops: Pipe icing onto them resembling eyeballs or spider webs
Spooky Cupcakes: Using the cupcake recipe, add 1 tbsp of cacao powder to the mixture to turn them into chocolate cupcakes, and decorate as ghosts, monsters or spider themed.
Cobweb slice: Spread chocolate icing over a slice, pipe a spiral of white chocolate on top and drag a toothpick from the centre to the edge to make the web.

Non-Food Options

In the back of the Party Edition Cookbook are:

🎉 Party Favour Ideas
🎉 Pinata Filler Ideas

Any or all of these would make great non-food options

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What should I look for in the supermarket? 🛒

If you’re short on time and just need to buy something, here’s what we look out for.

Steer clear of:

  • Brightly coloured lollies. Not always, but most of the time they’re full of synthetic colours.
  • Soft-centre lollies and chocolates (caramel, peppermint, strawberry), which are often loaded with additives and preservatives.
  • Popping candy.
  • Anything with preservative 223 on the label. It pops up in a lot of Halloween lollies, and it’s one we avoid.

Under the Food Standards Code, additives have to be listed in the ingredients, either by name or by number. So you can check any label yourself. It just takes a bit of time standing in the aisle with a tired kid 😅

Here’s where our Additive-Free Lifestyle App comes in 📲

Instead of trying to decode a tiny ingredient list in the middle of the Halloween aisle, open the Additive-Free Lifestyle app and scan the ingredient label. You get real-time info on which additives are in the product, what each one actually is and everything you need to decide for yourself. It’s just as handy at home when you’re sorting through the trick-or-treat haul. Here’s what the scanner looks like:

Always check the label yourself, even for products that were fine last year. Companies change their ingredients without telling anyone, so something that’s okay this year might not be next year.

Here are some additive-free (or mostly additive-free) options at the supermarket

As stated above, ingredients can change, so these were accurate as of October 2026.  Here are some better choices (but not perfect) Halloween themed lollies/treats we found at Coles:

Also, we are not saying these products are healthy because they’re not, and they’re a total sugar hit and highly processed.  But from a harsh additive point of view, sugar aside, these are a choice that we would use:

👉🏻 Twix
👉🏻 Plain chocolate
👉🏻 Twirls
👉🏻 Freddo Frogs (plain)
👉🏻 Flake
👉🏻 Mars Bars – These are semi-ok as they don’t have those harsh additives in them.
👉🏻 Freckles
👉🏻 Smarties – a much better choice than M&M’s or Skittles
👉🏻 Natural Confectionery Company – These lollies are fairly ok. Full of sugar but ok in terms of additives.
👉🏻 Plain chips
👉🏻 Bags of plain pretzels
👉🏻 Bags of plain popcorn
👉🏻 Fruit roll-ups – If you are up for it, you could definitely make your own fruit roll-ups. We have a recipe for them in our Lunchbox Edition cookbook. True Fruit is an additive-free roll-up brand stocked at supermarkets.

It goes without saying that most of these are still highly processed, sugary foods, but from an additive point of view, they are better choices.

What if I don’t want to hand out lollies at all? 🤷🏻‍♀️

You don’t have to! We know there’s a stigma around it. “What will the neighbours think?” But if someone gave Jo’s kids a Halloween pencil instead of a handful of additive-laden junk, she’d think they were awesome.

The more of us who do it, the more normal it becomes. Stickers, pencils, erasers, little spooky bouncy balls. Kids love them, and they won’t end up in the bin.

The bottom line 🎃

Halloween doesn’t have to mean a week of tummy aches, headaches and feral kids. A few simple swaps, a few rules and a quick scan with the app and you can say yes to the fun and no to the additives.

What if the kids end up with too many treats? 🤪

We get it… life happens! There are a few simple things you can do to help their bodies flush all the sugar and additives out of their systems.

Get them into a 👇🏻

Detox Bath Soak

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup Epsom salts
  • 1/2 cup baking soda
  • 3 – 10 drops essential oils (doTERRA’s RevitaZen blend is great for detoxifying and soothing effects)

Instructions:

  1. Fill your bathtub with warm water.
  2. Mix the essential oils in with the Epsom salts and then dissolve the Epsom salts, baking soda, and apple cider vinegar (if using) into the water.
  3. Soak for 20-30 minutes.
  4. Rinse with clean water after the bath.

Drink plenty of water! Water will help flush out their system.

These are a few little tricks we have implemented over the years to help.

The main thing to do, is be kind to yourself! You’re doing the best you can.  We hope all these hints and tips are useful as you celebrate Halloween.

Happy Halloween!

Jo & Tracey x

📲 Download the Additive-Free Lifestyle App here 👇🏻
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