The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends starting to add solid foods around 6 months.
Usually, a baby’s first meal is a mild baby cereal, such as oatmeal or rice flour (which we review here). Once they have mastered the grains, they slowly transition to fruit and vegetable purees, with increasingly complex flavors and textures.
In this article, we review the prepared organic fruit and vegetable puree. Of course, you can prepare your favorite fruits and vegetables in the baby food machine to complement these ready-made baby foods with homemade options.
1. Once Upon a Farm Baby Food: Safe and Delicious
This is a new addition this year. This is different from the other products on this list because it needs to be refrigerated to keep it fresh. There are several reasons for this. First of all, Once Upon a Farm does not use any preservatives in its formulations, not even citric acid or any other natural additives. Second, while other companies on this list use high temperatures to pasteurize their purees, Once Upon a Farm uses a cold-pressing process. Cold pressing has a similar effect in ensuring food safety, but it also allows food to retain more nutrients and flavor. The good thing is that these are quite possibly the best-tasting and freshest baby food bags on the market. The downside is that the bag needs to be refrigerated. There are many varieties of farm purees, and the complexity of ingredients and textures is constantly increasing. For babies over 5 months, it’s simple and smooth from the start, for example, the fairest pears and magic velvet mangoes are delicious and simple. As they age, their composition becomes more complex, such as the strawberry slices option for up to 9 months, which has an amazing taste but also a more complex texture, which contains small pieces of shredded coconut and chia seeds. As they get older, they make some really delicious options for toddlers over 18 months old, such as the amazing Chocolate Ever After, which is basically a sweet puree of bananas, raspberries, and cocoa. There’s also a lot to love about this company. The fruits and vegetables are sourced from California and Washington in organic, kosher, gluten-free, vegan, and non-GMO ingredients (as with all organic products). The puree bags (packaging) are also recyclable and BPA-free.
2. Serenity Kids Organic Baby Food: Vegetables & Meat
It’s new to the organic baby food market and parents absolutely love it! This is the only paleo baby food option on our list, made in the USA (Austin, TX) by a family business and certified organic by Tilth, Oregon. This means you can be confident that it doesn’t contain any wheat or grains, processed sugar, dairy, or other processed ingredients. It is also gluten-free, nut-free, egg-free, and free of any fillers. Instead, it uses a simple set of organic ingredients and adds a small amount of organic olive oil or avocado oil to provide some of the fatty acids present in breast milk. We’ve tried several great 6-month-plus varieties that are perfect for developing a complex baby palate! First, their organic pumpkin (pumpkin, walnut, and pumpkin), organic walnuts and spinach (with avocado oil), and organic root plants (sweet potatoes, carrots, beets). All of these early baby foods are delicious and have a high fat content (5 grams) that meets the requirements for baby puree. For carnivores, we also tried wild-caught salmon (pumpkin, salmon, beets), uncured bacon (pumpkin, kale, and nitrate/nitrite-free pork bacon), free-range chicken (peas, carrots, chicken), and grass-fed beef (sweet potatoes, beef, kale). Most of them are delicious and have excellent fat (5-7 grams) and protein (4-5 grams) content. When we tasted everything ourselves, we thought the vegetable puree was very good, and our favorite was the organic pumpkin; We are happy to provide our babies with a variety of textures, colors and tastes. The situation is slightly different for meat-based baby food purees. The chicken is pretty good, and the beef is good, but we think the salmon and bacon taste could be improved. Of course, this is subjective and you should definitely give it a try! Most varieties are very low in sugar, which is fine, but some varieties are relatively high in sodium, which is not ideal. For example, bacon flavor has a sodium content of 110 mg. Those minor criticisms aside, we think it’s a great addition to the baby food market and deserves to be on our list! Please note that these bags need to be refrigerated after opening and should never be placed in the microwave (like all baby food bags).
3.Braniac Apple Purees Baby Food
Unlike the other purees on this list, Braniac adds Omega-3s in the form of DHA and EPA, as well as choline, all of which have been linked to healthy brain development and function. These Brainiac applesauce mixes take the fatty acid nutrients from your favorite infant formula (or breast milk) and put them in the form of fish oil and choline chloride in a puree. In fact, each pouch contains about the same amount of brain-healthy omega-3s as a child’s serving of salmon (about 130 mg of DHA, 30 mg of EPA), and the equivalent of choline in 2 cups of broccoli! Puree also contains some vitamin C, potassium, and calcium. Brainiac puree comes in three flavors: Apple Apple, Apple Strawberry, and Apple Cinnamon. Note that these are the only non-organic options on our list, but they are non-GMO Project Verified, gluten-free, kosher-free, and free of added sugars, artificial flavors, and colors. The bag weighs 90 grams and does not require refrigeration as it contains vitamin C in the form of ascorbic acid, which is a natural preservative. The ingredients and nutrients are very good and we are excited to try it!
Brainiac also produces some great energy bars and nut butters, so be sure to check them out. Overall, we’ve really enjoyed trying out this new brand, and we think it’s a great way to incorporate some nutritional value into a delicious puree that babies, toddlers, and preschoolers are sure to love!
4. Mama Bear Baby Purees
Available through Amazon and Whole Foods, this product is an excellent choice for parents looking for the perfect combination of delicious, nutritious, certified organic, kosher, and non-GMO baby food, and it’s super reasonable at around $1.15 per bag. Like the Plum Organics option, these 4-ounce bags don’t require refrigeration and contain a variety of delicious fruits and vegetables. For babies over 4 months and 6 months respectively, there are Stage 1 and Stage 2 options. Basically, the difference is whether your baby can sit with minimal support (Stage <>) or sit without support (Stage <>), but if you’re wondering if your baby is ready to transition to the various stages of baby food, see the essential guide below. Mama Bear baby food is OEFFA certified organic, Orthodox Union kosher certified, and made in the United States. They don’t use any added sugar, added salt, or artificial preservatives (this product uses ascorbic acid/vitamin C and organic lemon juice to preserve color and flavor).
This is a great new baby food that deserves a spot on our list and definitely worth considering for your baby!
5. Earth’s Best Baby Foods – Organic
Earth’s Best brings together an amazing range of organic baby foods covering Stages 1, 2 & 3. They have a wide variety of fruits and vegetables that can satisfy even very picky babies, with stage 1 options including sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, apples, bananas, and plums. The second phase is more diverse and even includes some exotic fruits and vegetables, fruit and vegetable mixtures, and fruit and grain mixtures. Finally, in the third phase, they introduced several new chunky mixtures of fruits, vegetables, and even some soups. Everything we tasted was excellent, and we were impressed with the consistent quality of the various varieties. Older babies really like the thick veggie beef pilaf, and even the adults think it’s a reasonable choice, and they all think it tastes disgusting! In the second phase, we really liked the apple, peach, and oat flavors, and these best products on the planet are all organic, so that means no additives, no preservatives, not even added salt or sugar. These are some of the best on the market, and we’ve always been impressed with their quality and taste. Nothing special, and the new BPA-free bagged containers are easier to handle than glass jars and lids, although you can still find this type of container on Amazon Fresh. Organic baby food is highly recommended, from one of the few baby food brands that has been doing this for a while (since 1985!). And well done!
6.Happy Baby Baby Food Purees
That’s almost tied with the best baby food of the year on Earth. The biggest difference we found between Earth’s Best and Happy Baby is that Happy Baby has some more unique varieties that tend to appeal to some adults, such as mango as a first-stage fruit. They also tend to be more fruity than veggies and come in a nice flexible pouch that slides into a diaper bag more easily than a fragile jar. But on the downside, we’ve found that some Happy Baby varieties have a little more moisture than the best varieties on the planet, especially mango and pear. In some cases, this makes it more difficult to keep the spoon in the baby’s mouth. Our 3-year-old has started drinking leftover mango bags with a straw, if that gives you some hints! In addition to this, we believe that the Happy Baby range of baby foods is a great addition to the market, and we highly recommend them because of their high-quality ingredients, strict manufacturing practices, and delicious taste.
7.Plum Organics Baby Purees
This line of certified organic baby food makes a splash with its delicious taste options, smooth texture, and responsible and sustainable ingredient sourcing and manufacturing processes. We tried two of their most popular flavors: pear, purple carrot, and blueberry, as well as a delicious banana squash. Both baby food flavors were great, so we went back and tried the apple carrot flavor and the pear mango flavor. We were not disappointed! They all taste very fresh and high quality, and our baby testers love them, especially the banana squash and apple and carrot options! Like all organic products, Plum Organics baby food is certified organic, non-GMO, and uses whole, simple organic fruit and vegetable ingredients whenever possible. No added salt or sugar, and certainly no harmful preservatives, additives, artificial colors or flavors. The packaging is BPA-free and uses a child-safe and recyclable lid. While we’re only writing about Stage 2 blended varieties here, Plum Organics also produces an excellent range of primary foods such as Stage 1’s JUST Veggies and JUST Fruits, which are highly recommended for babies who are just starting to try puree foods. One of the questions mothers used to have was this: how do you keep food fresh without any artificial preservatives!? You’ll notice that most of our organic baby foods contain lemon juice, vitamin C, and/or citric acid, which add nutrition and flavor, while also acting as a gentle preservative to prevent spoilage (and don’t require refrigeration). Shortcoming? A recent congressional report showed that Plum Organics baby food is one of the foods with the highest levels of heavy metals. That’s not to say that some of the other products on this list aren’t that bad, but out of the products they tested, Plum Organics was the worst. These Stage 2 Plum Organics baby foods come in 4-ounce bags. A large package of 12 bags of multiple flavors typically costs around $13, which means that each bag will cost around $1.10. Overall, we really liked the choice of plum organics, but didn’t like the recent reports of high levels of heavy metals.
8. Gerber Purees – Organic baby food
Organic baby food has become so popular that even big brands like Gerber have started producing organic products, driving down prices, but also squeezing out some smaller brands in the process. Gerber is known for producing reliable, high-quality baby food at reasonable prices, and their new range of organic purees is no exception! Gerber offers these organic purees in the first and second food varieties, the first in cans and the second in squeeze bags. The ingredients in the new range of organic purees are simple: only fruit and vitamin C. No added sugar, thickeners, salt, or anything else. Vitamin C is used as a preservative, which is common for baby purees that don’t require refrigeration. These purees are certified organic by Tilth Oregon, certified organic by the USDA, and verified by the Non-GMO Project. And it’s great that these bags are BPA-free, which is explicitly mentioned. The screw cap is very easy to remove, and we appreciate the smart flow nozzle, which doesn’t let too much squirt out too quickly, helping to avoid getting dirty on the spoon or in the mouth. Taste? Delicious. Pears, peaches, and strawberries are our favorites, followed by apples, blueberries, and spinach. They also make avocados for the adventurous, but we haven’t tried that flavor yet. Gerber works directly with farms, harvests at the peak of maturity and uses sustainable farming practices to produce organic products. Shortcoming? Not much! The smart flow nozzle is a bit too slow for most toddlers, and the carrot/apple/mango doesn’t taste as good as it could be.
Pureed fruits and vegetables are the next step after your baby (usually at 6 to 8 months of age) stops using baby cereal. Trying pureed fruits and vegetables can be a real adventure! Don’t be surprised if your baby spits everything out on the first or even second and third attempts! Sometimes, it may take 5-10 times for your baby to adjust to a new taste or texture, and this process is a very good Xi experience for your baby. So, don’t give up on them!