Baby food flavors and colors

Introducing Solid Food To Baby By Color

Introducing Solid Food To Baby By Color | Prince Lionheart

Sign up to receive 10% off your next purchase and get the scoop on upcoming promotions, giveaways and product launches.

Enter email address

There’s no one right way to introduce food to Baby. One fun method is to feed your baby by the colors of the rainbow. Feeding by color starts Baby on the path to enjoying a variety of healthy foods.

Benefits of Feeding By Color

As with all things parenting, you’ll hear different ideas about how to introduce solids to your baby. Some people start with feeding baby cereal by spoon and moving forward one puree at a time. Other people prefer baby led weaning, allowing babies to feed themselves with foods that are firm enough to grasp, but soft enough to be mashed with Baby's gums. Other people believe Baby should be able to eat anything at any time, as long as Baby won’t choke. There are no hard and fast rules about how to introduce food to Baby apart from making sure Baby is ready to get started with solids. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says there’s no medical evidence that there’s any advantage to introducing foods in any particular order. So, why not make it fun for you and Baby and feed by color? Go for it! Bravery is inside us all®.

Introducing solid food to Baby by color isn’t just fun, though. Feeding by color introduces your baby to different flavors, both savory and sweet. It also helps establish healthy eating habits while ensuring Baby gets all the nutrients they need to grow strong and healthy. Plus, it encourages kids to continue to be adventurous down the road by eating each color of the rainbow.

When to Start Baby Food

So, how do you know when to introduce baby food? The AAP has a few recommendations for when to start baby food with your baby. Generally speaking, babies are ready for solid food when they:

Are 4 to 6 months old
Weigh 13 lbs or more
Doubled their birth weight
Can sit up mostly on their own
Hold their head up for a long time
Show interest in solid food
Open their mouth when food is nearby
Get hungry between feedings

Babies usually let you know when to start baby food by showing interest in what you’re eating and grabbing for it. You may see Babies opening their mouths like baby birds whenever you eat. If you’re ready for introducing solid food to Baby, watch how they react to the food in their mouth. If Baby pushes the food out of their mouth with a tongue thrust, they’re not ready quite yet. Try again in a week or two. Look for Baby’s ability to move food to the back of their throat to swallow it. It may take a few tries since solids are a new experience for Baby, and the texture might take some getting used to for them. Once they’re able to swallow solid food, you’re ready to get the taste adventure started! Get your bibs and CATCHALL™ mat ready. Kids are messy. So is parenting®. (But your carpet doesn’t have to be!)

How to Introduce Food to Baby

Feeding by color is an exciting way to start introducing solid food to Baby! To get started, learn what each color of food can offer your baby in terms of nutrients and health benefits.

Food Color

Nutrients & Health Benefits

Example Foods

Red/Pink

Sources of vitamin C, lycopene, and anti-inflammatory antioxidants.

Red peppers, beets, strawberries, cranberries, cherries, raspberries, watermelon, rhubarb, tomato

Orange

Sources of vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, beta-carotene, and potassium.

Oranges, mango, orange peppers, papaya, cantaloupe, carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash

Yellow

Sources of vitamin C, vitamin B6, vitamin A, folic acid, potassium, and magnesium.

Bananas, yellow peppers, yellow beets, yellow apples, corn, yellow tomatoes, pears, summer squash

Green

Sources of lutein, folate, iron, vitamin K, vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and amino acids.

Avocado, asparagus, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, kale, cabbage, edamame, peas, green beans, green peppers, zucchini, cucumber, green apple, honeydew, kiwi, lime

Blue/Purple

Sources of various antioxidants, but primarily anthocyanin, which protects your body against cell damage and inflammation.

Blueberries, blackberries, huckleberries, eggplant, figs, plums/prunes, red grapes/raisins, purple potatoes, purple carrots, purple cauliflower

White/Brown

Sources of vitamin C, magnesium, potassium, and selenium.

Cauliflower, mushrooms, white potato, turnips, parsnips, white pears, garbanzo beans

Planning Baby’s menus is fun. Try looking at Baby’s diet over the course of the week, rather than per day. You’ll be hard-pressed to fit every color into a single day. In turn, it’s pretty easy to sprinkle them all in throughout a week. You can even do one color per day!

A week’s menu by color might look like this:

Monday: Pureed red apple, pureed beets with baby cereal.
Tuesday: Pureed butternut squash, pureed mango
Wednesday: Mashed banana, pureed corn, flaked trout
Thursday: Mashed avocado, pureed green peas
Friday: Mashed plums, pureed purple cauliflower
Saturday: Pureed garbanzo beans, mashed potato
Sunday: Finely diced chicken, whatever’s left!

At first, solids are a supplement to breast milk or formula. A few months after starting solids, your baby should eat a wide variety of foods from each color category. Include veggies, fruits, proteins, and grains, as well as breast milk or formula until age one.

With certain foods, it’s also a good idea to watch out for any adverse reactions, from diaper rashes to potential signs of a food allergy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the eight most common food allergies are to eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, and wheat, but other foods, like citrus, can cause diaper rash or a rash around the mouth because of their high acidity.

If there’s a history of food allergies in your family, watching out for allergic reactions is particularly important, so talk to your pediatrician before introducing any potential allergens and ask what to look out for in your baby. It may also be a good idea to wait 3-5 days between new foods to watch for any adverse reactions. Otherwise, feel free to give these foods a try!

If a food does cause a reaction in your baby, talk to your pediatrician about how to proceed. You may need to start with small tastes, or wait to reintroduce the food until later.

Important: Never give Baby honey until after the age of one because of the risk of botulism.

Tips For Feeding Baby

Now you know when to start baby food. Whether you begin with spoon feeding purees or letting Baby feed themselves from their CREATE™ Plate, offer lots of variety and see how Baby responds. Remember that kids’ preferences change. Stay flexible with Baby’s meal plan. Here a few tips for issues that might pop up.

What if Baby turns their head away or fusses when I offer more food?
Baby’s telling you they’re finished. Take it one bite at a time. Let them stop when they’re done.

What if Baby rejects a certain color of food?
Try a variety of foods in that color range. Even if Baby isn’t a fan of one green food, they might happily accept another. Alternately, take a break from that color and try again next week.

Can I protect my house/carpet from becoming rainbow colored?
Keep our CATCHALL™ mat under Baby’s chair to catch flying food. Put a big, absorbent bib on Baby before every feeding. Sit nearby and don’t put large containers within Baby’s reach. (Invest in a good stain remover, too.)

What if Baby gags on new foods?
If the texture is new, puree the food until it’s smoother, or strain out fibers. If it’s the flavor, take a break and try next week. Palates change.

← View all Tips

$0. showStaticTooltip}}

Subscription Details

{{{toolTipDescription}}}

{{/showStaticTooltip}} {% endraw %}`, "bundle": {}, "labels": "{\"appstle.subscription.wg.yearsFrequencyTextV2\":\"Years\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.weekFrequencyTextV2\":\"Week\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.oneTimePurchaseTextV2\":\"One Time Purchase\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.loyaltyPerkDescriptionTextV2\":\"{{#isDiscountTypeFreeProduct}}

After {{{billingCycleBlock}}} orders, get a FREE {{freeProductName}}

{{\/isDiscountTypeFreeProduct}}{{#isDiscountTypePercentage}}After {{{billingCycleBlock}}} order, get {{{discount}}}% OFF your entire order.{{\/isDiscountTypePercentage}}{{#isDiscountTypeShipping}}After {{{billingCycleBlock}}} order, get shipping at {{{formatDiscountedPrice}}}.{{\/isDiscountTypeShipping}}{{#isDiscountTypeFixed}}After {{{billingCycleBlock}}} order, get {{{formatDiscountedPrice}}} OFF your entire order. {{\/isDiscountTypeFixed}}\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.unsubscribeFrequencyTextV2\":\"unsubscribe\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.weeksFrequencyTextV2\":\"Weeks\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.oneTimeFrequencyTextV2\":\"One Time\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.dayFrequencyTextV2\":\"day\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.allowFulfilmentCountViaPropertiesV2\":\"false\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.monthsFrequencyTextV2\":\"Months\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.deliveryEveryFrequencyTextV2\":\"Delivery Every\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.subscribeAndSaveInitalV2\":\"Subscribe & save\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.offFrequencyTextV2\":\"Off\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.yearFrequencyTextV2\":\"Year\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.daysFrequencyTextV2\":\"Days\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.subscribeAndSaveSuccessV2\":\"Subscribe success\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.monthFrequencyTextV2\":\"Month\",\"appstle.subscription.wg.selectDeliverOptionV2\":\"select deliver option\"}", "css": { "appstle_subscription_widget": { "margin-top": "" , "margin-bottom": "", }, "appstle_subscription_wrapper": { "border-width": "", "border-color": "", }, "appstle_circle": { "border-color": "", }, "appstle_dot": { "background-color": "", }, "appstle_select": { "padding-top": "", "padding-bottom": "", "padding-left": "", "padding-right": "", "border-width": "", "border-style": "", "border-color": "", "border-radius": "", }, "tooltip_subscription_svg": { "fill": "", }, "appstle_tooltip": { "color": "", "background-color": "", }, "appstle_tooltip_border_top_color": { "border-top-color": "", }, "appstle_subscription_final_price": { "color": "", }, "appstle_widget_text_color": { "color": "", }, "appstle_selected_background": { "background": "transparent", }, "customCSS": "", "customerPortalCss": "", } }; var _RSConfig = _RSConfig || {}; _RSConfig. shop = 'prince-lionheart.myshopify.com'; _RSConfig.shopMoneyFormat = '${{amount}}'; _RSConfig.shopMoneyFormatWithCurrencyFormat = '${{amount}} USD'; }

10 Popular Baby Food Flavors, Ranked Yummiest To Grossest By A Mom

When a not-so-little-anymore little one reaches the exciting phase of starting solids, parents are usually a bit more excited about this new phase than their little ones. But trying new things can be an exciting experience for everyone involved.

RELATED: 10 Healthy Snacks Your Picky Toddler Will Love

And with all the first food options it can be a little tough to pick just one flavor for a baby's first solid. But, since moms know their little ones and the look on a baby's face at the first taste of his or her first solid food is kind of priceless, take a look at this list of yummiest to grossest solid foods for a little food-spiration.

10 Bananas

Call mom crazy, but bananas seem to be the yummiest choice for baby's first solid food. They are sweet and soft enough for toothless mouths, pretty bright in color and they smell nice. What's not to love? With so many choices of baby food on the market it may be hard to choose just one but judging by the faces babies make, bananas is one of the safest options he or she is sure to love.

9 The Orange Root

If mom is feeling more veggie-friendly for baby's first solid, think carrots. They are high in beta carotene which is great for helping your little one develop great eyesight, not to mention that they are sweet tasting yet really healthy. If jarred goods aren't really mom's thing, try steaming the real deal for a while until they're soft. For an extra kick, they can even be mixed with baby's milk of choice.

8 The Saucy Apple

Apple sauce is such a fun "big boy or girl" choice for baby's first solids. Also, the added spices in apple sauce, like cinnamon, are great to expose your little one to at an early age, not to mention cinnamon's natural antibacterial properties which are great for fighting off yucky illnesses young babies are prone to getting before their immune systems are fully developed.

7 Super Food Avocado

When it comes to a baby's first, avocado, depending on the season and availability should be one of the first. The creamy texture and numerous health benefits is bound to make the famous super-food, avocado a crowd-pleaser. Some moms have found that on occasion babies don't care for the taste, while other babies grin and eat it up, which is why it's ranked in the middle of our list. So give it a try, and let your little one decide.

6 The Sweet Potato

For an iron-rich, fiber-intense, baby food, check out the sweet potato. Most babies really like the earthy nature of the sweet potato and of course the sweetness which is not too overpowering.

RELATED: 10 Easy Snack Ideas For New Moms

Most stores carry sweet potato as a baby food option, but if you're feeling adventurous steam the potato and mash it up for baby to try. This is lower on our list so mom makes no guarantees that he or she will love it, but of all the baby food flavors available this is by far one of the better choices.

5 Boom! Splat! Squash!

For the coolest onomatopoeia that also doubles as a vegetable, try squash for baby's first solid. Enjoy making a squashing sound while he or she is eating. There are at least 8 types of common squash mom can find around town, most commonly during Autumn, it's hard to go wrong with this as a baby food. Consider erring on the sweeter side for firsts, however. Think: butternut squash or pumpkin to start. Again this isn't all baby's cup of tea so you never know.

4 Rice Cereal

Mom isn't sure if it's the texture or just her tots that enjoy frowning up his and her faces at the sight of rice cereal, but this one is definitely ranked grosser on the list of common baby foods.

RELATED: 10 Easy Breakfast Ideas For New Moms

To be fair, there are many different kinds of cereal on the market, which is not to say that your little one will dislike all of the types of rice cereal available, but from mom's perspective the consistency needs to be just right and tricks, like adding milk instead of water or mixing off the heat, can really make all the difference.

3 The Pea Sized Vegetable

Peas! Okay if we're being honest it can be difficult to find any child, from baby to pre-adolescent that gets excited about eating their peas. Unfortunately for moms who are looking for a first baby food, that same sentiment applies. Many babies just do not care for peas. Perhaps it's the pea skin that slips off when mashed, or maybe it's just the way they taste, but many babies spit out their servings of peas.

2 Spinach

If it was good enough for Popeye why not good enough for the baby? Well, for the jarred baby food spinach in the grocery store, sometimes there is a strange smell, one can't be entirely sure if this is the reason little ones shy away from the leafy green, but it's certainly off-putting to mom.

RELATED: 10 Meals To Batch Cook For The Fourth Trimester

For the real deal, i.e. the non jarred stuff, it's almost impossible to get the strands ground up into a creamy texture, suitable for a first baby food. Some add cream to make this a non-factor. Either way, most babies frown up and do a hard pass on the stuff.

1 Beans

Yuck! Okay maybe not yuck entirely, but, many moms have found that their little ones do not like beans at all for a first form of solid food. Sure, they can be mashed and made baby edible, but beans are far from being baby's first choice of food. Although there may be hundreds of varieties of beans very few are on the sweeter side, which generally is baby's preference since they are somewhat born with a sweet palate. Happy first solids!

NEXT: 10 Things To Know About Babies & Food Allergies

flavor enhancers, flavourings, dyes, preservatives

Flavor enhancers

In the territory of the Russian Federation, 22 flavor enhancers are allowed to be used in food production. Of these, only one is used in baby food - sodium citrate (E331).

It is most often found in children's yoghurts and curds with fruit. Sodium citrate enhances the sour taste of the product and extends its shelf life. The additive is approved for use in baby food throughout Europe and the Russian Federation.

View products without harmful additives

Flavors

Flavors are natural and identical to natural (chemically obtained).

Natural flavors are dill, pepper, bay leaf, etc. Vanillin is often controversial, but chemically speaking, its molecule is no different from vanilla. For homemade cereals and pastries, you can use both vanillin and vanilla pods, just keep in mind that there is only 2% of vanillin in a pod, and besides it, there are about 200 more flavors. Children are sometimes allergic to bean vanilla.

Dyes

The names are long and the label space is often small. Therefore, most dyes are denoted by indexes E.

Let's list those that are allowed in baby food:


E101 - yellow	This is vitamin B2 or riboflavin
E140 - olive	Chlorophyll, extracted from the green leaves of plants
E120 - purple to orange	Carmine
E150a and E150b - caramel color	Sugar color, aka burnt sugar. In addition to coloring, it adds a sweet taste and smell of caramel
E160a - orange	Known as beta-carotene. It is found in large quantities in ordinary carrots

Preservatives

Needed to increase the shelf life of the product.

There are a lot of preservatives, we list those allowed in baby food:


E270 - lactic acid	Found in yogurts, kefirs, cheeses
E300 - ascorbic acid	aka Vitamin C
E330 - citric acid	Lemon juice is sometimes added instead of citric acid
E333 - calcium citrate	Considered to be a completely safe supplement throughout the world. Used in dairy products, jams, etc.

Thickeners

Provides a thick product consistency.

There are many of them, so let's just list them:


E406	agar
E410	locust bean gum
E412	guar gum
E440	pectin
E1400	dextrin
E1420	starch

All these additives are approved in the production of baby food in almost all countries of the world.

Important!

Current legislation requires manufacturers to list on the packaging all food additives used in the manufacture of the product. You can always write off the data from the package, study the information in detail and choose the best product for your baby.

Baby food: reading labels

What do the frightening inscriptions "preservative E such" and "dye E such" mean, how juice differs from nectar - these and other useful data that can be obtained by reading the inscriptions in small letters on jars of food.

Nowadays, almost every self-respecting manufacturer of something has a line of children's products. Of course, they are positioned as the most natural, healthy, environmentally friendly and hypoallergenic. In this way, absolutely everything “childish” is advertised, from cottage cheese and cookies to washing powders and cotton buds. Parents need to be very careful not to fall for tricky marketing moves and advertising. Let's look at some of the subtleties using the example of baby food for complementary foods.

I don't want to start a long and pointless discussion about "tins and boxes vs homemade". There is no doubt, it is unlikely that someone will refuse to feed the baby with vegetables from the grandmother's garden, farm dairy products and meat from cows grown in protected conditions, but not everyone has the opportunity (and means) to approach the issue of nutrition so thoroughly. It is possible that sometimes you have to buy a jar of mashed potatoes or a bag of baby yogurt for your baby in the store. It’s great if, for example, children’s kefir consists of milk and fermented milk starter, and vegetable puree consists exclusively of vegetables and water. This is the best option. However, quite often on a jar or box there can be frightening inscriptions “preservative E such” and “dye E such”.

You shouldn't be so scared right away. According to the accepted nomenclature, the letter E denotes any food additives, and the serial number indicates the type of additive. So, E 100-199 are dyes, E 200-299 are preservatives, E 600-699 are flavors and flavors, etc.

By definition, food additives are substances added for one purpose or another to food products, i.e. this is not only artificially synthesized additives, but also natural substances (for example, curcumin and chlorophyll). The most common soda, acetic acid, pectin are also food additives and are designated according to this nomenclature E500, E260 and E440. Ethanol, by the way, is prohibited in Russia as a food additive E1510.

The main document regulating the production and sale of baby food in Russia is Technical Regulations of the Customs Union No. 021/2011 , which we will refer to as TR. The document is open and everyone can study it, but I would like to dwell on a few points that usually worry parents:

) raw materials containing GMOs.

In principle, the law is fine, except for the recent scandals with a well-known foreign manufacturer of baby food caught using GM soybeans and corn. The issue of expertise and fines for the use of GM raw materials secretly remains open. That is, an examination is carried out, fines are paid, but it is probably impossible to give a 100% guarantee of non-use of GM raw materials.

In the production of food products for baby food, it is not allowed to use food (food) raw materials obtained with the use of pesticides.

Determining the content of pesticides is much easier technically and cheaper than the examination for GMOs. We can speak quite confidently about the absence of pesticides in baby food.

In the production (manufacturing) of food products for baby food for children of all age groups, in order to give a specific aroma and taste, it is allowed to use only natural food flavors (flavoring substances) and for children older than 4 months - also vanillin.

Great, with the proviso that, of course, you should not start giving vanillin directly at 4 months.

It is also forbidden to use artificial dyes in baby food (for example, the permitted dye E 160a is ordinary carotene, a pigment that gives a yellow-orange color to carrots and is a provitamin of vitamin A), and it is allowed to use E300 as preservatives in canned baby food - ascorbic acid, also known as vitamin C or citric acid E330. There is a rumor about the latter on the network that it is a carcinogen. Comrades! This is a myth, a reprint of the so-called Villejuive list - either a scientific error or a hoax.

And one more little trick of the manufacturers. It is quite possible that a food additive whose name is well-known to the consumer, for example, the same ascorbic acid, will be called an ordinary word, but the now unpopular sodium nitrite will be hidden behind the designation E250. However, this is more likely to apply to "adult" products - the use of E250 in baby food is prohibited.

Canned baby food, as you know, is divided into several stages according to the age of the child. Long shelf life is provided by instant pasteurization (rather than preservatives). Often the contents of the jars are additionally fortified. How much this is necessary is a separate question, but it must be borne in mind that the manufacturer must indicate this information on the label.

As mentioned above, industrial baby food does not use artificial flavors, colors and preservatives, and the raw materials used are subject to fairly strict control. However, "superfluous", more precisely, additives not always requested by the consumer, are found quite often. All of them should be indicated on the label, which should be studied very carefully, surprises are possible. The penalty for a false label is very high, so important information is indicated, but in much the same way as consumer loans with wild interest - small letters on a bright background.

So, what else, besides the ingredients promised in large print, can be found in the selected jar?

Modified starch. The main horror movie of parents who taught chemistry poorly. He is considered genetically modified and is amazed at the frank cynicism of the producers. Of course, this is nonsense. Starch is a substance, not an organism, and by definition there are no genes in it. Modification of starch consists in changing its properties, for example, increasing the viscosity. It does no harm to the child.

Vegetable protein. Behind this word is ordinary soy, that is, soy protein. Do you need it? Decide for yourself. By the way, unlike soy protein isolate and concentrate, the use of soy flour in baby food is prohibited.

Vitamin complex. Surely, many children from large cities have hypovitaminosis and additional vitamins will not hurt. However, some vitamins are often strong allergens. Parents of allergic people are better off choosing a jar without them.

In addition, approved additives may be present in canned food - milk powder, rice flour, salt, white pepper, vegetable oil, lemon juice, etc. . So if you do not want them to get into your baby's body ahead of time, study the label especially closely. It's generally useful.

Thus, a very well-known domestic manufacturer of baby food has launched two types of baby jars on the market - canned meat and vegetable and vegetable and meat. In the first case, the meat content is 40%, in the second - 10%. As they say, feel the difference. And all the words are rearranged. This is certainly not an outright scam. Yes, a little trick.

There are a lot of instant baby cereals: welling (milk formula with the addition of cereal flour), dairy-free or milk cereals, gluten-free cereals, mono- or multi-component cereals, as well as therapeutic and prophylactic cereals (containing pre- and / or probiotics). Unlike adult cereal cereals, such cereals do not need to be boiled, it is enough to dilute them with hot water. Milk cereals may contain skimmed milk powder, whole milk and whey, or an artificial mixture. Sometimes it happens that advertising speaks of a mixture in the composition of porridge, but in reality it turns out that this is powdered milk. So if the question of the presence of a mixture or powdered milk in the composition of porridge is fundamental for you, carefully study the composition of the product.

In addition, dry porridge may contain a large amount of sugar. Now this is not very welcomed by pediatricians, however, the TR does not prohibit the use of sugar in children's cereals, limiting its amount to 25% of the volume of the finished product. Of course, no manufacturer in their right mind would pour so much sugar into dry porridge, but the presence of sugar and the percentage of its content may be a surprise to the consumer.

The main difference between children's and adult dairy products lies in the raw materials used. For the manufacture of adult kefir, cottage cheese or yogurt, milk of the first grade is used, and for children - the highest. The microbial count (simplistically, the number of live microorganisms in a product) for children's products is five times lower than for adults. For the manufacture of adult cottage cheese, both sterilized and pasteurized milk can be used, for children - only sterilized.

Vitamins are often added to baby milk, this should also be taken into account if the child is prone to allergies.

A few years ago, only children's dairy products were guaranteed to be free of milk powder, but in 2008 Russia passed a federal law obliging manufacturers to indicate the content of milk powder in a product. In this regard, many manufacturers have appeared, representing both children's and adult products without milk powder and with a short shelf life. The buyer will vote in rubles.

The TR defines "drinking water for baby food" - drinking water intended for drinking by children, cooking and reconstitution of dry food products for children at home.

Notice how vague the wording is. It does not specify why this water is considered childish. The norms of mineralization, the content of bacteria and microorganisms are prescribed in the TR, but they are compared with the norms for baby food as such, and not with "adult" water. In general, I did not find any reliable information about the differences between children's water and adult water. Of course, by “adult” I don’t mean medicinal table water or tap water, but ordinary non-carbonated bottled water.

In short, an allergy sufferer's paradise. In general, it is not very clear how manufacturers manage to certify it as baby food. Even the most gentle options for baby cookies contain sugar, wheat starch, milk powder, baking powder, an egg or egg powder. Often there are flavors not listed on the label. Cookies are designed for children of different ages, but in any case, they should hardly get carried away by children under one year old.

In our childhood juices were often used as the first food. And now, many pediatricians of the old school are advised to give the child juice drop by drop as early as three months. Leaving aside the question of the appropriateness of such an action, let's look at what children's juice consists of and how it differs from an adult.

As with canned food, no artificial preservatives, flavors or flavor enhancers are allowed in baby juices. The words of the manufacturer about "special ecological zones in which apples for children's apple juice are grown" can hardly be believed. Maybe such zones exist in the West, but in Russia this is probably a trick of marketers. However, raw materials for children's juices are subject to very strict control. The TR establishes special requirements for children's juices compared to adults: they limit acidity and sugar content, prescribe a certain nutritional value and vitamin content.

Juice directly pressed from fruit is called "straight juice". If there is no such inscription, then the juice is restored from the concentrate. The label must also indicate whether the product is juice per se, nectar (juice content 40-50%), juice product (at least 10% juice) or fruit drink (made only from berries). This applies to both adults and children's juices.

You should also read the label very carefully - under the big inscription 100% there may be a small postscript "natural" or "healthy". And this will not mean at all that juice is only beneficial. And the only thing is that nectar is disguised as 100% juice at best.

Children's products are indeed checked regularly. Obtaining a permit for the production and sale of baby food is much more difficult and expensive than for "adult" food. It is the companies engaged in the production of children's products that are more likely to do this, they take their toll with a large assortment and sales volume. For large producers or retailers, there is no point in bothering with special certification, for example, for juices; against the background of sales of other products, this will only slightly increase revenue.

A similar situation is observed, by the way, when certifying children's toys, for example, on a rattle you can see a beautiful inscription “from three years old”. This is due precisely to the difficulties of certification, and not to the fact that it is dangerous to give a child a rattle before three years of age.