I received samples of Beech-Nut baby food to facilitate my review, and I am being compensated for my time preparing this post.  As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Why Baby Food?

Those of us who prioritize real food prefer to feed our babies straight from our kitchens as often as possible.  However, for most of us, that isn’t always an option.  Homemade food, for instance, doesn’t travel well in a diaper bag.  And frankly, some of us just have enough other things going on that something has to give, and if someone else will fix the baby’s food, that works for us.  (Case in point: my adrenal fatigue.  Making batches of baby food for the freezer is not going to happen.)

But if we are going to purchase baby food, we want it to be good quality food, right?  That’s why I was so excited to see this new line Beech-Nut is just bringing out.

The NEW Beech-Nut Line

These new Beech-Nut foods contain no preservatives, no artificial ingredients, and no additives.  What you would think you’re getting is what you’re really getting when you open the jar.  (The only “added” ingredient I saw in anything was either lemon juice or citric acid — I forget which — to keep apples/pears from turning black.  And we do that in our own kitchens.)

Not only is there nothing weird added to these foods, the foods themselves are good quality.  High-quality produce varieties are selected, like Honeycrisp apples and Haas avocados.  Then they’re cooked with an innovative cooking method to preserve as many nutrients as possible.  You can’t help but have some nutrient loss if you’re canning.  That’s true even of home canning.  But this Just Gentle Cooking method minimizes the nutrient loss by:

• adding no unnecessary water
• puréeing the food before cooking rather than cooking it to mush
• cooking it with indirect heat
• tailoring the cooking time to the type of food being cooked
• removing the excess air from the container to eliminate the need for chemical preservatives

They even produce the food in an energy-efficient (eco-friendly!) building.

I have actually noticed a difference in Beech-Nut even before this line.  When comparing baby food meat at the grocery store, the other brand uses modified food starch.  Beech-Nut has only the meat and broth.  This is a pretty big deal for those of us who believe that baby bellies aren’t ready to digest starches yet!

As you can see, these foods still maintain their vibrant colors.  And these are their own vibrant colors — there are no artificial colors added.  I have to confess that the baby didn’t get the apples.  I ate those.  (He doesn’t like apples/pears, anyway.)  They were yummy.  He’s eaten the carrots, though, and the “green stuff” (Just Spinach, Zucchini, and Peas), and gobbled both up.   (We haven’t gotten to the Beets, Pear, & Pomegranate yet.)

So far, I’ve been quite impressed, and I’m looking forward to seeing these show up on my local supermarket’s shelves!