Condition-based marketing and parental concern for babies and toddlers will provide opportunities for product developers in the year ahead.

02/12/2008 (Food Processing) - The hot nutrition and wellness issues coming in 2009 and beyond start with the very youngest members of the family. Growing awareness of the equation of “unhealthy food + children = future unhealthy adults,” coupled with advances in food and ingredient processing are influencing how parents feed infants and toddlers in the 21st century.

There is increasing emphasis on the sanctity of these products. “Natural,” “organic” and “no additives/preservatives” became top positioning claims, accounting for more than 50 percent of total product launches in 2007, according to Mintel International Group (www.mintel.com), Chicago.

Nutrition and convenience are of utmost importance to 73 percent of 10,000 mothers surveyed, according to Zero To Three (www.zerotothree.org), a national nonprofit organization that “informs, trains and supports professionals, policymakers and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers.”

So feeding infants and toddlers has directed innovation focus on freshness and distribution to serve this market. In principle, mothers want to feed their infants and toddlers well; in practice, however, in recent decades they have reached for the convenience of cans and jars.

Small-batch fresh and frozen fruit, vegetable, legume and whole-grain-based baby and toddler foods are becoming more widely available from companies such as Happy Baby/Nurture Inc. (www.happybaby.com), Brooklyn, N.Y.; Homemade Baby (www.homemadebaby.com), Culver City, Calif.; Peas of Mind (www.peasofmind.com), San Francisco; and Chicago-based Maddy’s Organic Meals (www.maddysorganicmeals.com). Dori Boneck, Maddy’s owner (and mom of the real Maddy), flash-freezes USDA organic-certified fruits “at the peak of harvest to ensure maximum flavor and nutrients for toddlers around the nation.”

Such products are not only from start-ups. Companies with strong health credentials – Beech-Nut Nutrition Corp. (www.beechnut.com), Latham, N.Y., for example – are reinforcing the new “better for you” message, promising “maximum nourishment.” Beech Nut’s new “No Junk” products – sans artificial flavors or colors, MSG, trans fats, added sugar, high-fructose corn syrup or excessive salt – are fast becoming the norm for jarred and dry cereal baby foods.

“The new Stage 3 DHA Plus Sweet Potatoes & Wild Alaskan Salmon is the first jarred seafood option for babies,” says Beech Nut’s marketing director Mary Cool. Based on the latest understanding in infant nutrition, the innovative ingredient combinations provide omega-3 DHA to support baby’s mental and visual development and prebiotics (inulin) to stimulate baby’s growth of “good” bacteria and enhance calcium absorption.

The Stage 3 line includes whole wheat, which is another infant nutrition first in the U.S., to provide babies with added fiber, protein and magnesium, for healthy digestion, satiety and bone-building. The added algal DHA is from Martek (www.martek.com), Waltham, Mass.