How is jarred baby food made

There are benefits to both store-bought and homemade baby food, so choose what makes the most sense for your family. Many parents take a hybrid approach — buying jarred food when they need convenience, and making their own versions at home when they have the time and ingredients on hand.

You may have heard recent — and-not so-recent — reports about heavy metals in jarred baby food. But experts stress that store-bought baby food can still be perfectly healthy. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics AAP , the low levels of heavy metals found in some baby foods likely pose a very small risk to your child.

However, any heavy metal exposure can be harmful to the developing brain, so it's a good idea to minimize exposures from all sources of heavy metals, such as lead, arsenic and mercury, when possible. More common hazards, for example, include lead exposure from old paint or arsenic exposure from contaminated pipes. While some findings do highlight the need for stricter regulations in the baby food industry, experts say that store-bought baby food is generally very safe, and the recent headlines should not scare families away from buying jarred baby food.

What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses only credible sources, such as peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions and highly respected health organizations. Learn how we keep our content accurate and up-to-date by reading our medical review and editorial policy. The educational health content on What To Expect is reviewed by our medical review board and team of experts to be up-to-date and in line with the latest evidence-based medical information and accepted health guidelines, including the medically reviewed What to Expect books by Heidi Murkoff.

This educational content is not medical or diagnostic advice. Use of this site is subject to our terms of use and privacy policy. Registry Builder New. Other common baby foods in the s included liver, veal, and strained single-ingredient vegetables and fruits.

In , babies were not commonly fed solid food until they were 11 months old, and by , that age plummeted to just 6 weeks old. As of today, the American Academy of Pediatrics, U. National Institutes for Health, and World Health Organization all recommend waiting until a baby is at least 6 months old to introduce solids.

The impact of commercial baby food on American food culture has been enormous. Perhaps most poignant in the cultural shift of feeding babies, however, is the boomerang effect the industry has had on moms in the last years. The very products designed to make feeding babies easier for moms laid the foundation for a cultural expectation that moms should make organic, unprocessed baby food at home. A close inspection of these modern products, however, show that most still contain the traditional sweeteners of sweet potatoes, carrots, apples, and pears.

Prior to the invention of perfectly smooth baby food, babies were exposed to a wider variety of textures. Interestingly, the results demonstrated that searches related to picky eating were among the most popular queries. Some ingredients are not mentioned, for example, sweeteners and trans fat.

The situation becomes even more acute when potential allergens are present in the food. A lot of baby food manufacturing plants also process allergens such as nuts, dairy and soya. To address this, there is a legal threshold of how much of an allergen has to be in a food product in order for it to be required to be labelled. Sounds good right? However this threshold is based on general adult tolerance levels which are irrelevant to babies. Commercial baby food is commonly packed in glass jars.

However new demands for convenience have given away to trends involving plastic, sealed containers and pouches. Valuable natural resources are needed to manufacturer these items. Eventually all this packaging ends up dumped in landfill. There is also the pertinent issue of food waste. Initially babies will take only one or two spoonfuls per meal, yet the jars are far, far bigger.

Aside from the waste element, the packaging of commercial baby food has been found to be dangerous in itself. For instance, several studies have found the lids of baby food jars contain the hormone disrupter Bisphenol-A BPA which has been linked to infertility and cancer, even at extremely low levels of exposure Health Canada BPA leaches from the baby food containers into their contents.

When this was announced in the press, a few manufacturers changed their packaging, opting to use a substitute bisphenol S. However unbeknown to consumers, bisphenol S also disrupts hormone activity. Commercial baby food packaging is also responsible for exposing babies to a carcinogenic toxin called semicarbazide SEM. The toxin, which has been linked to cancer in animals, gets into the baby food through the plastic gaskets used to seal glass jars with metal twist-off lids Roberts Another area of concern is the transfer of mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons MOSH from recycled packages.

Many different typews of MOSH chemicals are used by the baby food industry either directly or indirectly, and many foods become contaminated with them. These chemicals are easily absorbed by the body but are not broken down. They can accumulate in certain organs, such as the liver, heart and lymph nodes, and may cause them to become damaged or diseased Probert Pouches are also not without their risks.

All the defects inherent in commercial baby food discussed mean that persuading parents to purchase these products is not easy. However the baby food companies have literally millions of dollars to pay marketing executives to execute sophisticated deception techniques. A key strategy in baby food marketing is to utilise the latest buzz words. No matter what the fad is—low-sugar, fat-free, organic, or heart-healthy—manufacturers will try to lure parents into buying their product.

A company can use the word to mean just about anything. Almost all packaged foods today are processed in some way. Natural fruit puree may be sweetened with cane juice instead of white sugar , but it can still contribute to health issues when eaten regularly.

Since there is no law that requires how much real vegetable has to be included in a food that uses this claim, the jar could contain just a few peas or one brussel sprout to be accurate. This term is not regulated by the FDA, so the product could contain any amount of sugar or artificial sweeteners.

If the label does not say percent whole wheat or percent whole grain, then be wary: the product is likely to contain only a trivial amount of whole grain.

This is a purposely vague, loose term that insinuates that the food contains the latest sought-after vitamin or mineral. The recent trend is a lack of Vitamin D, because of concerns that a deficiency in Vitamin D may play a role in autism.

Organix Ltd are a prime example. However look at the label. The product contains several ingredients including Ascorbic Acid. In fact, fifty three percent of food products specifically targeted to babies and toddlers have an excessive proportion — more than 20 per cent — of calories coming from sugar Science Daily A g of cheese can contain 1.

Acids commonly added to these foods include citric acid, ascorbic acid and even folic acid. Citric acid is commonly used to remove limescale from boilers and evaporators. Ascorbic acid is used to remove dissolved metal stains, such as iron, from fiberglass swimming pool surfaces. The product contains citric acid as a preservative and added sugar, which also acts as a preservative. In a nutshell, health claims such as those discussed above act as a marketing smokescreen. This gives a misleading impression of the overall healthiness of a product, making it more difficult for parents to choose healthy products.

However baby foods are excluded from this legislation because babies and young children have different nutritional requirements than adults.

Yet no comparative regulation was introduced for babies! As well as everything the manufacturers planned to include in the product, there is a significant risk of unplanned ingredients slipping in during the industrial process. Due to the nature of manufacturing — the sheer quantity of product produced, the capacity for corrupt employees, lengthy transportation and packaging chains — foreign objects are par for the course.

Yet parents who assume that the food industry share this view are naive wishful thinkers. Pouched, potted and boxed baby foods are not immune either. Reliance on baby food manufacturers to show social responsibility is ineffective because companies are legally obliged to act the best interest of their shareholders, not consumers. Asking baby food manufacturers to change merely serves as a distraction from perusing more effective initiatives.

For instance, there is an urgent need for adequate Government regulation of the baby food industry. The answer is surprisingly simple! Just puree the vegetables and fruits or meats in a blender yourself and store them overnight in the refrigerator. Or hell, why not go the easy, and frankly common sense route — baby led weaning. Top 4 Selections for Your Kitchen Renovation. Best Dolls for 4 to 8 Year Olds. Children's Activities. These are just some examples. The list goes on.

Products with no artificial sweeteners simply use real sugar to improve taste, and sometimes far above recommended doses. However as the sugar is not artificial, they can get away with it.

It contains The fact is, both natural and artificial flavours are laboratory concoctions. Neither is healthy. Take one of those chemicals — amyl acetate — for example. It can be claimed as natural on a label. No further detail is given as to what the actual components of this natural flavouring are. Maltodextrin is harmful to teeth, has a high glycemic index and can trigger allergic reactions.