For years, American parents have had very little trust in baby food. Today, things are changing.
New York City-based baby food startup Little Spoon has become the first baby food maker to set new food safety and transparency standards in the United States. It's a monumental step in the industry and something that has never been done before.
The founders of Little Spoon came together with the belief that the options for parents were simply not up to snuff. It's hard to disagree with that. Just take a quick trip to the baby section at your nearest grocer.
Standard shelves are stacked with brightly-colored jars and plastic foil pouches filled with goops and goos of varying shades, and shelf-stable blends are stamped with seemingly endless ingredients, some with concerning additives, like high levels of sugar for flavor or ascorbic acid for color and even traces of unknown heavy metals.
"When we launched in 2017, Little Spoon was the trailblazer in the fresh baby food space, disrupting a decades-old category that needed a serious transformation," shared Angela Vranich, co-founder and chief product officer at Little Spoon.
Finding baby food that is safe, nutritious, and affordable is exceptionally difficult in America.
"We know that the modern parent today is seeking better-for-you options that they can trust," she added.
Little Spoon decided to look across the pond for a better way.
In addition to pesticide and additive controls, the EU imposes strict regulations on the amount of lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic traces allowed in baby food. Accepted levels are set as low as reasonably achievable.
"Unfortunately, in the U.S., there are still no legally enforceable standards for heavy metals in baby food, aside from legal limits on inorganic arsenic in infant rice cereal, and lead in bottled water, candy, and juice," explained Ali Bandier, a registered dietician and founder of Senta Health.
In response, some concerned American parents have gravitated towards European baby brands, starting as early as infancy. Many are willing to pay the premium on imported products from overseas, sometimes illegally.
The "Little Spoon, Big Change" campaign marks the first time a U.S. baby food brand will adopt EU-aligned safety standards. Little Spoon's founder indicated that the company chose to look at the EU due to the fact that customers trust their standards.
In the lead-up to the campaign, Little Spoon also did lots of listening.
Little Spoon polled over 2,000 U.S. parents with children under age two, finding that 93% were concerned about the quality of ingredients in baby food, and 95% believed that the U.S. needed to raise the standards for baby food safety.
Given the high demand for a better alternative, the campaign is focused entirely on Little Spoon's best-selling Babyblends, certified organic, non-GMO, smooth purees that are made with fresh ingredients like pitaya, avocado, golden beets, chia, rosemary, and butternut squash. Babyblends come in multiple stages to ease the transition of starting solids and start at $3.32 per blend.
Save 20% on your first order with the promo code FRESH2024.
"Before enforceable regulations are in place, companies should set their own internal standards for contaminants and heavy metals in baby food," Bandier suggested. "Most importantly, companies should refrain from selling products that do not meet these standards."
But, so far, Little Spoon is the only baby food maker in America to do so,
Starting September 25, the company will test all Babyblends for over 550 toxins and contaminants with testing limits based on current EU standards. Those include heavy metals, plasticizers, pesticides, and glyphosate. A third-party accredited lab will oversee testing, and no product will be sold unless it falls below these rigorous limits.
According to Vranich, Little Spoon has also made it a priority to provide parents with information about the food they purchase. Customers will be able to view the exact testing limits alongside detailed ingredient sourcing information on a user-friendly dashboard at LittleSpoon.com.
"With no current U.S. federal regulations in place for baby food manufacturers, we felt it was important to take matters into our own hands..." shared Vranich. "We did not want to wait for regulators to impose change; we wanted to be the change."
The idea that a relatively small baby food startup can implement such a groundbreaking standard that billion-dollar baby food brands are yet to attempt is astounding.
This article was written by Miska Salemann, New York Post Commerce Journalist. As a Gen Z first-time mother of one, Miska tests baby, maternity and postpartum products ranging from stylish new kids clothes to long-trusted diaper brands with her daughter. She evaluates baby- and mom-approved products for practicality and quality, and consults medical and parenting experts to weigh in on safe ingredients, usage and more. Before arriving at the Post, she covered the lifestyle and consumer verticals for the U.S. Sun.