BBC Panorama recently aired an investigation into the baby food pouches market in the UK. Sales of baby food pouches in the UK have grown by an astounding 900% in the past 14 years according to The Independent and is a market worth hundreds of millions of pounds every year*

These food pouches are covered in health claims like :

as nutritionally good as homemade (Heinz)
no added sugar (Ella’s Kitchen, Aldi and others) on fruit pouches
suitable from 4 months +
100% natural

It’s hard being a parent at the best of times and this, in my opinion, is NOT about shaming parents. It is about bringing these food companies to task and shaming THEM into being open and transparent about their marketing and labelling.

I believe food pouches can be part of a balanced diet for your baby and child when used occasionally (not as an every-meal option). They are convenient and mess free.

Lots of parents of young babies love the reusauble food pouches from Nom Nom Kids that we sell exclusively in Ireland - you can look at them below. These provide a great alternative to the shop bought options as YOU are in control of what goes into them.

nom nom reusable-food-pouch-nom-nom-kids-animal-4 pack-amz2.jpg

SHOP REUSABLE FOOD POUCHES

What the Panorama documentary found out about these pouches:

Free or natural sugars
They are very high in free or natural sugars. They do not have any added sugar in the fruit pouches but when fruit is pureed to within an inch of it’s life like in these pouches, this process breaks down the fibre in the fruit. This means the fruit sugars are much more easily absorbed into the bloodstream and will result in a higher sugar spike than if eating the whole food.
Some of the pouches had as much as a child’s full daily allowance of sugar in 1 pouch
Iron
Some savoury pouches contain well below the iron requirements for a baby. A baby uses up their own store of iron by about 6 months so it is essential they get iron through their diet from that time. If pouches like Heinz sweet potato , chicken and veggies are being used as a meal replacement, they provide less than 5% of hte recommended iron intake for a baby.
Vitamin C
A lot of the vitamin C in the fruit has been lost due to the processing and heating of the fruit in the pouches. At home, if we blend fruit for a puree, our blenders are not as strong as the blenders the food companies use.
4 months old
Several of the baby food pouch companies, including Ella’s Kitchen and Mamia from Aldi offer baby pouches suitable from age 4+ months. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommend starting weaning from 6+ months. So these food companies are marketing products to parents which are at odds with the guidelines of the WHO.

Make it stand out

Mamia pouches from Aldi clearly state that they are suitable for babies aged 4+ months, in contravention of the WHO recommendations to begin weaning at 6+ months.

Some additional issues I have with baby food pouches

Equal billing for all ingredients
One thing that always annoyed me about baby food pouches was that you think you’re feeding your child loads of veggies when you purchase the more savoury options. They are equally billed on the packaging.
But it you look at the actual ingredient list, the savoury element (the veggies) is often a very small % of the overall product.
Why is that?
Because we are all attracted to sweet foods - it’s in our DNA! So the baby tries the pouch that has pears, peas and broccoli and you think you’re winning at life right?
But, in this product - 60% of it is the fruit and only 10% is broccoli. So your baby is barely getting any taste of broccoli and it is completely masked by the excess sweet pear.
BUYER BEWARE!
Lack of food experiences

When a baby or child eats from a food pouch, this pouch bears no realtion to the actual food it is made from. The child is not seeing, feeling, touching or smelling the actual food.

Our children need to learn about food through using their senses. If the food is pureed and then in a pouch where the contents are not visible, then the child will not be able to learn anything.

3. Texture

There is concern over consistent eating through a spout for a young baby or child.

It can lead to tooth decay, babies eat much faster this way and they are not learning to develop their oral motor or fine motor skills. They are not experiencing a wide range of textures and this can cause problems later in life when children cannot chew properly as they are so used to soft food.