By Annie Gasparro
The biggest hit in baby food in decades is in trouble.
Pouches of puréed fruits and vegetables have dominated growth in
the baby-food aisle over the past decade because of their
convenience. The boom has ended.
Sales of baby-food pouches were flat last year and dropped 0.8%
in the year through Nov. 3, according to data from market-research
firms Spins and IRI. Overall, baby-food sales in the U.S. rose 2.4%
to $1.64 billion in that period.
Companies that banked on pouches are under pressure to rethink
the packaging in light of some doctors' concerns, environmental
impacts and the latest trends in baby food.
Natalie Pollard said she and her husband relied on pouches with
her first son. But they struggled to get him interested in solid
foods later, so they avoided pouches with their second child.
"It made our first son less open-minded to the textures and
tastes of actual foods," she said. "Our second son is a better
eater, and I wish I didn't do pouches with my first one."
Plum Organics, now owned by Campbell Soup Co., pioneered the
pouches in 2008 as a less messy way for babies to feed themselves.
Pouches helped boost sales when baby-food makers were struggling
with lower birthrates and a trend toward making purées from
scratch. They also gave manufacturers higher profit margins than
traditional baby food.
But over the past year, anecdotal evidence and related research
have led to a backlash from some pediatric feeding specialists and
speech pathologists. They say that sucking food from pouches can
inhibit babies' oral development and lead to poor eating
habits.
"I have seen many babies who have trouble progressing to finger
foods because the parents relied on pouches for too long," said
Natalia Stasenko, a pediatric dietitian. "It's probably fine to use
pouches from time to time. But we now see that their use is by far
too excessive."
Some parents also take issue with the fact that pouches aren't
easily recyclable, are typically twice as expensive as jars, and
the first ingredient is often fruit -- which means more sugar.
Meanwhile, more people are jumping straight to whole foods for
their babies, skipping purées altogether.
While the growth has stalled, baby-food pouches still make up
about one-quarter of infant and toddler-food sales, according to
market-research company Nielsen.
Pediatric feeding specialists and companies say there is
insufficient research on the developmental risks of eating from
pouches. There is currently a study in New Zealand looking at the
potential impact pouches have on children's teeth and overeating. A
study in Birmingham, England, that began in the 1990s found that
children who ate only purées until they were nine months old had
long-term feeding problems, such as eating fewer vegetables at 7
years old.
Some makers of baby food encourage parents on their websites or
packaging not to let their babies suck on pouches. "Squeeze into a
bowl or onto a spoon," the packaging on Gerber's infant pouches
reads. Gerber is owned by Nestlé SA.
"We recommend children don't suck on the pouch," said Meghan
Rowe, who co-founded the White Leaf Provisions baby-food company.
"But it's not that big of a deal to suck on a pouch as long as they
aren't exclusively doing that."
Beech-Nut, owned by Hero Group, says it advises parents to start
with its glass jars rather than pouches. It also is considering
putting instructions online to spoon-feed babies, but there isn't
room for that on the pouches themselves, said Ximena Acosta-Molina,
Beech-Nut's director of brand management.
Responding to the developmental concerns associated with
pouches, some companies are offering baby food in cups and jars.
Danone SA's Happy Baby Organics, one of the biggest pouch brands,
introduced jars last year.
"We can all say that the pouches can be spoon-fed to younger
babies, but in reality, that's not how they are being used," Happy
Baby Organics Chief Executive Anne Laraway said in an
interview.
Once Upon a Farm, a refrigerated baby food that made its debut
with pouches in 2015, added cups earlier this year, which it says
are geared toward babies under 9 months old.
Lil' Gourmets, a startup in Chicago, introduced its baby food in
cups rather than pouches last year because founder Shibani Baluja
said she saw too many downsides to pouches.
"When kids are sucking it down, they aren't really tasting the
flavor," she said.
The German Society for Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
advises that babies and young children not eat directly from
pouches, saying they might delay or hinder learning to eat from a
spoon or learning to eat finger foods, among other issues.
In Europe, baby-food makers are selling disposable spoons with
pouches to encourage parents to dish out their contents.
In the U.S., many companies say they have been more focused on a
shift to organic ingredients and making pouches recyclable, rather
than getting rid of them. Nestlé said preliminary findings from its
2016 study on feeding infants and toddlers indicate that only a
"very small percentage" of children eat more than one pouch a
day.
"We want babies to practice chewing and swallowing," said
pediatric feeding specialist Melanie Potock. "But parents love the
convenience of pouches."
Kimberly De la Garza, a 30-year-old mother in Dallas, said she
likes that pouches make less of a mess than scooping food out of a
jar and spooning it to her two children. Her kids love them,
too.
"My 2-year-old just says, 'Pouch? Pouch?' over and over again.
She can't get enough," Ms. De la Garza said.
Write to Annie Gasparro at annie.gasparro@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 23, 2019 18:17 ET (23:17 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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