When browsing baby aisle in the supermarket I find myself watching parents a lot. Not in a judgemental way – I don’t really care what they are buying and why. I’m curious about their purchasing process.

When buying creams, nappies, wipes or anything in those categories, it’s almost instinctual, they walk up to the product, pop a few packs into their trolleys and off they go. Now, I’m not saying that there hasn’t been hours of research into these products that has taken place at home, but watching them in the store it’s pretty cut and dry. Usually the only thing that may sway them from their usual brand is a special offer too good to miss. Parents love a bargain and products are just so expensive we can’t really pass them up.

Food is in a different league though. There are rows upon rows of brightly coloured, organic pouches and jars. All promising no added sugar, low salt and delicious meals that your little one will love. This is where you see some parents hit a “my god what do I do?” wall. They pick up at least 5 different varieties of meals, read the full pack, put it back, only to return to it a little while later and buy it. I find they go with the bigger name brands that are exceptional at marketing their product. The ones with NO ADDED SUGAR, LOW SALT, GREAT TASTE, ORGANIC INGREDIENTS plastered across the front of the packs.Those statements seem like perfectly reasonable facts to base the purchasing decision on. I mean as a parent myself I’m inclined to think that’s all I need to worry about. WRONG. What they don’t focus on is;

• The amount of naturally occurring sugars, because they predominantly use fruit in their recipes to bulk out the meals. They need tiny taste buds to love them, so you’ll keep buying them.
• The lack of nutrients left in the organic ingredients after the “processing” to give them long shelf lives.
• The low energy, iron and vitamin values – these are vital for children’s growth and development.
• Worst of all the taste – I mean in what universe does every single blended vegetable/meal taste like cardboard?

Showcasing at baby or food shows, we usually struggle to get parents to taste our purees, why? Because they are all scarred by their experience of the supermarket versions. If you are unwilling to eat it yourself, should you really be giving it to your child? It seems mean to me, their first experiences with the wonder that is food, should not be that!

Despite all this, the latest backlash against the prepacked baby and toddler food industry and the rise of companies like us that offer parents the fresh, nutritious, competitively priced option. Parents will still continue to frequent these aisles and buy these meals. This is worrying to me. What we eat as children dramatically influences our attitude towards food later in life. We should almost always focus on quality not just convenience.

So, I ask you parents of Essex to put down that shop bought packet and head over to www.logansplate.com and order something that looks, tastes and smells of it’s ingredients.