The foodies at Little Tummy explain the benefits of cold-pressed baby foods and why brands are turning to High Pressure Pasteurisation to make baby meals safe.
Every parent wants to provide healthy and nutritious foods for their little ones. This can sometimes spin out of control when parents feel the pressure of having to prepare several meals a day from scratch. Just as we choose to buy a ready-made meal or drink from the supermarket for ourselves, there are times when we would like to be able to buy nutritious yet convenient baby food for our little ones. Cold-pressed baby foods offer a safe and nutritious solution.
Dr Sophie Niedermaier-Patramani, co-founder and paediatric expert at Little Tummy, talks us through the benefits of cold-pressed baby foods and explains the High Pressure Pasteurisation (HPP) process.
Why choose cold-pressed baby foods?
Heat-sterilised baby meals are older than your baby.
The baby food options on supermarket shelves are heat-sterilised to make them shelf-stable for up to two years. The problem is that heat destroys essential micronutrients as well as the authentic taste of the ingredients. Until now, brands selling baby food have missed the opportunity to provide parents with a healthy and delicious alternative.
What is HPP?
New brands are revolutionising the way parents buy baby food. Little Tummy uses a gentle cold-pressure method called HPP (High Pressure Pasteurisation), which utilises high pressure instead of heat to inactivate bacteria and other germs to make the meals safe to consume. The meals are prepared at low temperatures and filled into their packaging. After this, they undergo a high pressure of 6000 bars in a pressure chamber – this is 6 times the pressure of the deepest part of the ocean!
What are the benefits of cold-pressed baby foods?
HPP has some wonderful nutritional benefits for our little ones’ health and development:
- HPP preserves vitamins and other micronutrients, which are usually destroyed at temperatures above 80 degrees. This ensures that the goodness of the ingredients remains intact and babies benefit from a nutritious meal.
- Heat-treated fruit purees are more concentrated and have, therefore, higher amounts of free fruit sugar and less fibre. HPP allows meals to be prepared at lower temperatures to keep the fibre intact and prevent the release of sugars. The result is a satisfying meal which is low in sugar but contains all the fibre necessary to build a healthy gut flora.
- Most importantly, HPP preserves the authentic flavour of the ingredients. Studies have shown that children, who were exposed to a variety of fruit and vegetables during infancy, were less picky around these choices later on in life. HPP helps with setting up healthy eating habits for children by providing this variety. Babies who eat cold-pressed meals will later recognise these authentic flavours in the meals they eat as toddlers.
Studies have shown that meals treated with HPP are as safe as heat-sterilised ones. Even though cold-pressed meals have to be kept chilled, they can usually be taken out and about for several hours, for example on out on a day trip.
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- The top Trending Baby Names in 2020
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