I make 99% of P’s food. You could call it a labor of love, but I hardly consider it “labor” because I enjoy it immensely and nutrition is near and dear to my heart. As for the 1%…it’s tricky with a child who has allergies. Obviously in an ideal world we would have the time to make real food for our kids and we wouldn’t have to rely on pre-made items at all. [Well, actually, in an ideal world there would be no food allergies, but we can overlook that small detail for the purposes of this post] Much like the allergy mom stereotype, I’m overly cautious when it comes to introducing new things and I do my research beforehand. Here are a few items that we have had success with, that I figured I should share, in case there are other moms out there trying to find some shortcuts.
These are new to Trader Joe’s and I really really hope they stick around (TJ’s is notorious for discontinuing things right after I find them and fall in love with them).
The only ingredients are apples and bananas and while they are kinda small for 99 cents, they are perfect things to throw in the diaper bag or glove compartment for who knows when. They make an apple and mango one too but P isn’t into mango and it’s a more common allergen so I haven’t pushed it. Same with strawberries. More for me, right?
He’s finally to the point where he can independently eat things (like bars and pouches) rather easily (and they mostly end up in his mouth). These are perfect for travel too.
Rather than buy applesauce pouches (treetop, gogo squeeZ, TJ’s crushers, etc.), I just refill my own pouches (EZ squeezees) with TJ’s applesauce. The unsweetened one has just apples, and trust me, it’s plenty sweet.
Normally I wouldn’t buy this kind of thing for P but he had a GI bug and I had a coupon (for any plum organics product) so I’m officially a total sucker.
They were harder than I thought they’d be (I was expecting melt in your mouth puffs or something) but he really liked the way they crunched. The suggested serving amount is actually accurate – he did eat them in about 4 servings (maybe 5?). And truth be told I don’t mind supporting plum organics because they have superb customer service. When I emailed them a few months ago asking about their facilities and allergens, this was the email response I got:
Hi Elise- Thank you for reaching out to Plum Organics! I apologize for the delayed response. We are certainly sensitive to protecting children with allergies, and are working to have the best programs possible. Our products go through an exceptionally stringent manufacturing procedure (consistent with kosher dairy specifications). This process is in addition to our existing Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and additional Allergen program, which are in place to eliminate the possibility for the occurrence of cross-contamination. These practices include detailed testing and swabbing to ensure that no allergens are present. We have recently reevaluated our allergen statements, and have made some facility changes.
We currently manufacture our pouches in four different locations. Two of these locations do not have any allergens in the factory at all. The other two locations process ingredients containing dairy and gluten. These facilities have a cleaning process that is validated to remove these proteins and that is verified every time that the proteins are on the equipment. Our fruit snacks, Cremes and Puffs are in treenut/peanut free facilities. Currently, none of our pouch locations process eggs or soy.
Some of our pouches contain dairy (i.e our Stage 2 Greek Yogurt Second Blends). This will be disclosed on the pouch. Our baby pouches are produced in a shared facility with dairy, however, the dairy in the facility is kosher dairy. Kosher cleaning practices are the most stringent and rigorous manufacturing practices available, and as a result, we are confident that cross-contamination will not occur. On our packaging we do label for top 8 allergens, however, due to our strict and highly audited manufacturing process, it is incredibly unlikely that there would be any contamination.
The allergen disclosure you are seeing on the pouches you mentioned reflects our old allergen statement, and we since made changes. To help put you at ease, and to elaborate a bit on our manufacturing standards and provide some additional confidence in our brand, we do follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) which applies to terms of operations, sanitation, processes and beyond. Additionally, even though it is not legally required to indicate potential facility exposure on packaging, we have chosen to include it because transparency and safety is the top priority for us. All of our incoming ingredients are accompanied by a certificate of analysis assuring that all parties are following GMP’s as well. We reached out to our facility manager to provide you with some more details re: our handling practices:
• Incoming carrier inspection: Cargo areas of trucks delivering incoming ingredients and materials are inspected for sanitation, the presence of cross-contamination, pest issues, open containers and other concerns. Inspection results are documented.
• End of Day Sanitation: At the end of each day, a complete cleaning of all equipment, utensils, and environment is carried out with preoperational inspection. All Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOP’s) and additional procedures specific to detailed equipment cleaning and Master Cleaning Schedules (MCS) are documented and maintained.
• Training: Allergen and GMP training is provided to all employees.
I hope this helps. Thank you for your patience in this matter, and thank you for supporting our brand. Please let me know if you have any further questions!
Warmly,
Rachel J
I bolded the key points but as you can see, they are VERY focused on allergen safety and clearly understand the need for vigilance.
P has tried their puffs (the flavor shown above) and the aforementioned cremes and both have been tolerated fine. The old allergen statement alluded to in the letter said “produced in a facility that processes milk, soy, and wheat” but there were no ingredients with any of those allergens listed, which gives me confidence that their Good Manufacturing Practices are sufficient.
When it comes to pouches, I’ve discussed the happy baby line previously on HHH so you can find out which are my favorite products here.
That’s all for now! If you have allergen friendly baby/toddler products you have tried and like, let me know in the comments (I’m always up for new ideas).
Finley loves the strawberry beet puffs by Plum organics! What a detailed and thoughtful response – it definitely tells you a lot about their company.
Like you, I make the majority of my daughter’s food, but I did something very cliche and bought chicken nuggets. However, I found Applegate’s GF ones. This company tells you the exact farm(s) their meat comes from while most others say they can’t because of competition. These have been nice to have on hand for a quick protein when we don’t have dinner leftovers.
Thanks for the tips, gonna look for that bar at our TJs this weekend.
Mason LOVES Happy Baby products. I, like you, prepare his food about 99% of the time due to allergies to 7 of the top 9 allergens. But we do buy puffs (or, as M calls it – “Puppies!” aka ‘puffies’), and coconut milk fruit and veggie snacks from Happy Baby for the occasional indulgence. The Happy Baby coconut milk snacks are reaaaaaally similar to these from Plum, only they have [allergy free] probiotics added. Win, win.
very cool – ill check those out for sure. thanks for the suggestion!
awesome suggestion angie – ill keep my eye out for them next time I’m shopping. its always good to have things like that in the freezer just in case, right?
I had the apple and coconut bar from TJ’s the other day. Yum. And yeah, that happens to me too with products that I like getting discontinued. They used to have this really good Matcha Green Tea yogurt that was delicious.
Stock up at TJs now!!! I’m still bitter that their meatless balls have been out of stock “to be reformulated” for the past six months….
Speaking of, their freeze dried fruits are great. Only ingredient is the fruit itself, they just crunch and melt when eating them. The freeze dried grapes are one of my favorites.
Random though but those japanese rice crackers (some are longer thin barrel shapes with seaweed) at TJs might also be an option- my nephew loved those when he was really young.
I love how attentive plum organics is!! Very impressive standards they uphold.
unfortunately those have sesame seeds – which P is allergic to. at least the ones i think you’re referring too (thin GF wafer type). the freeze dried fruits are definitely on my radar so thanks for the thumbs up. I’m only holding off for now because they are $$$$ for how few are in the package. but I may get desperate enough…
apple coconut??? i want that one! we only have apple mango and apple banana!!
The freeze dried fruit actually seem to have a surprising amount in each bag. We used them a ton for snacks when Hatch was little and they lasted a week (maybe a bit less).
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