How long is beechnut baby food good for

frequently asked questions - Beech-Nut

Our Foods

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About Beech-Nut®

Our Foods
We have an entire department dedicated to ingredient sourcing. Research goes into finding the phenomenal food that goes into our jars. We build relationships with farms we can trust, and look for opportunities to buy locally whenever we can – like how all of our apples for our Naturals™ range come from about three hours away in upstate New York! We do what it takes to make sure we are using only the best, including turning food away when it isn’t up to our standards.
The key is in our cooking process, which uses both deaeration and gentle heating. In deaeration we remove air from the puree so the food isn’t exposed to oxygen, which would cause browning and decomposition. The food is then gently cooked, which deactivates enzymes and bacteria that could further break down the food and allows the product to be shelf stable. This is similar to what you’d do when canning at home.
We’re working with the Non-GMO Project to verify all our products. We believe that the Non-GMO Project’s seal is a good fit for our products because it is trustworthy, defensible and transparent and (most important) requires ongoing testing. Right now, over 100 of our products are Non-GMO Project verified, and we’re pursuing all the rest! Look for the butterfly on our packaging in stores. You can learn more and check on the status of our approvals on the Non-GMO Project’s website: livingnongmo.org
Glyphosate is a commonly used pesticide, and traces of this chemical can remain on foods sourced from U.S. farms. We want to reassure parents that all Beech-Nut® foods are healthy, nutritious and safe. Our glyphosate standard ‎is 10 times more rigorous than the EPA’s regulatory standard, and for certified organic products, our standard is set at zero. For example, the oat flour in our infant cereal is tested to help ensure that it meets our high standards. Just like you would, we send it back if it doesn’t meet our standards.
Even the highest quality, organic and non-GMO fruits and vegetables contain trace amounts of lead because this contaminant commonly occurs naturally in soil. The FDA states that: “Because lead may be present in environments where food crops are grown and animals used for food are raised, various foods may contain unavoidable but small amounts of lead that do not pose a significant risk to human health.” We have strict standards and test for up to 255 contaminants for every batch of food we make. Read about our Food Quality and Safety standards here.
Every baby is different! Talk to your pediatrician to understand when your baby is ready to try solid foods in conjunction with formula or breast milk. A good rule of thumb is to start trying solids around 4-6 months. Your doctor can help you decide when to start and what to try first with a feeding plan. For more information, check out tips from our pediatric nutrition specialist Nicole Silber here on our blog. These are signs your doctor looks for to determine that your baby is ready:
We recommend serving at room temperature or slightly warmed. If using a microwave, be sure to stir thoroughly, and always test the temperature before serving it to your baby, as uneven heating may occur (note: Do not microwave Beech-Nut® jars that contain meat). A safe alternative to microwaving is placing your jar in a bowl of warm water, then stirring and testing the temperature. Also, it’s best that you don’t feed directly from the jar, to prevent bacteria growth.
Always check with your doctor if your baby shows any sign of an allergic reaction. Food allergy reactions vary greatly. Symptoms can include difficulty in breathing, constipation, diarrhea, vomiting, skin rash, coughing, runny nose and watery eyes. A good rule to follow is to introduce just one new food every 3 to 5 days to help identify any possible allergies. With this in mind, our Beech-Nut® Stage 1® foods are “single-ingredient” foods, and all our cereals are soy-free, to provide you a convenient and healthful way to check for food allergies in your little one.

Always use a clean spoon for serving, and don’t put the spoon in your mouth or anyone else’s mouth.

Never leave opened baby food out at room temperature for more than two hours.

Store opened baby food in the refrigerator, but only for a maximum of three days. “When in doubt, throw it out!”

See the FDA’s safe feeding and handling tips here. This page includes information about how to microwave baby food, how to store unused baby food, and when to call the doctor if you think your baby has a foodborne illness.

Unfortunately, we do not have a direct to consumer online ordering program. Typically, we only sell to retail partners who order truckloads of food. We would love to be able to sell directly however, as a small company, we do not currently have the capability to ship directly to parents’ homes. If you are looking for alternative stores where you can find our products, check out our store locator.
The texture and color of our purees will change if the jars are stored improperly. This is because ingredients like bananas are a temperature-sensitive. For example, when bananas are exposed to extreme temperatures, they can become clumpy. They can also turn pink or develop a thick film that may look like the skin you would find on pudding. If your jar is showing any of these characteristics, then the jar was most likely not stored according to our guidelines. While there are no health or food safety risks associated with the affected jars, they are not up to the quality of the food we strive to produce. Please call our Consumer Help Line: 1–800-233–2468 and we will happily replace the damaged jars.

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Beech-Nut becomes a disruptive force in baby food
Millennial moms shopping the baby food aisle have recently been met with a new vision: Shelves stacked with premium, honeypot-shaped, clear glass jars displaying the vibrant, rich colors of 100% natural fruit and vegetable purees. Bright orange carrot, deep crimson pomegranate, luscious golden apple, and rich purple blackberry are just a few. It is the vision that drove Beech-Nut Nutrition Corp.’s year-and-a-half-long journey to transform its products and packaging to better meet the needs of today’s moms and bring them back to a declining category.
According to Andy Dahlen, Beech-Nut’s Vice President of Marketing, in recent years, moms have been switching from commercially prepared baby foods to homemade in order to ensure the freshness and nutrition of their babies’ food. A drop in the birth rate has also affected the category.
“Over the last five to seven years, there has been a decline in the birth rate, so that is a factor facing the category,” Dahlen says. “But even if you account for the decline in birth rate, there are ounces leaving the category due to moms who are choosing to not enter the category or are getting the food and nutritional needs of their babies met elsewhere.
“If you look at the per-baby amount of ounces consumed from the aisle, in 2005, a baby would consume on average 1,700 ounces. In 2012, that number was just less than 1,200 ounces. So 500 ounces are gone. We know from the birth rate and the fact that there have been no changes in nutritional recommendations that babies are still getting those ounces; they are just not getting them from the category.”
Driven by the desire to make its brand relevant and compelling to modern moms, in late 2012 Beech-Nut—led by Dahlen, along with brand agency Bluedog Design™—set out to reformulate its product line and disrupt the baby food category forever with “Real Food for Babies” in packaging as premium and “pure” as the product itself.
Gentle cooking yields natural product
Beech-Nut, a subsidiary of Hero AG of Lenzburg, Switzerland, was founded in 1890 and has been producing baby food since 1931. Located in Amsterdam, NY, at “One Nutritious Place,” the company is the number-two leading baby-food brand in the U.S., producing jarred fruit and vegetable purees, cereals, pouched purees and yogurts, and a limited line of toddler meals and snacks.
According to Dahlen, the company’s history is one of innovation in packaging and nutrition. “It was a brand built around competency in packaging,” he says. “In 1931, Beech-Nut was the first to put baby food in a vacuum-packed container. That was an innovation at the time. Throughout the history of the brand, the company has been a leader in terms of being the first to remove any additional salts and sugars, and the first to launch a stage eating system for baby food, where the textures and the products were designed to meet babies’ needs as they grew.”
Therefore, it was only natural in 2012 for Beech-Nut to embark upon a transformational change in its brand focused on product and packaging innovation. As Dahlen explains, the project was a co-creative process between Beech-Nut, Bluedog, and approximately 3,000 moms. To understand what consumers were looking for in a baby-food product, Beech-Nut and Bluedog conducted both quantitative and qualitative research through ethnographic studies, one-on-one interviews, and focus groups.
“The studies were really designed to get at how moms were feeling about feeding their babies, about the category, and about caring for their children, all going into a deeper emotional level to help guide us in the right way to deliver a product that would be relevant to mom and address her needs,” says Dahlen.
According to Bluedog CEO Michelle Hayward, the answer was “simple”: “We found out when it comes to food for their babies, moms believe simple is best, and simple means real—that means more flavor, more healthful, and more enjoyable.”
To deliver simple, 100% natural products, Beech-Nut worked with a proprietary supplier to develop gentle cooking™ technology, a method that ensures the freshness of the fruits and vegetables, without the addition of excess water or preservatives. During cooking, Beech-Nut uses indirect heat similar to a double-boiler to preserve the color, texture, and flavor of the products.
The chef-developed recipes of the new Beech-Nut brand include 40 products, some single-ingredient, such as Honeycrisp Apples, Sweet Potatoes, and Bartlett Pears, and others that use several ingredients, such as Apple & Blackberry and Sweet Corn & Green Beans. The products are divided into three stages, with Stage 3 (for babies approximately eight months and older) using grains and other ingredients not commonly found in traditional baby foods—among them, avocado, quinoa, amaranth, chia, and others.
“At every single home we were in [during ethnographic studies], the moms were making avocado,” says Dahlen. “It’s a healthy fat, and there are not a lot of avocado choices in the baby-food aisle. So we have avocados in several of our SKUs.”
Differentiating the products from organic baby-food offerings and others that claim to offer a more healthful option, Beech-Nut’s line “is just the fruit or vegetable and nothing else,” Dahlen says. “There is half a honeycrisp apple in the Honeycrisp Apple jar. That’s what’s in there, nothing else.” The product has an 18-month shelf life—six months less than competitive jarred baby-food products—due to the lack of preservatives.
Simplicity is key to design
To translate the simplicity, freshness, and quality of the new product through packaging, Dahlen gave Bluedog full rein over the design, without any constraints. “We could not incrementally change our design,” he says. “We needed something transformational.
“Bluedog is a very progressive agency that digs deep into the meaningful relationship a consumer has with a brand, especially our main consumer, young millennial moms. They also have intimate knowledge of simplicity and a strong design competency to deliver the forward-thinking solutions I needed for Beech-Nut.”
After conducting research with millennial moms, Bluedog’s Hayward says the brand agency began to try to translate visually the idea of simplicity. “We found there were key themes of purity, connection, and singularity,” she says. “If you think about what those words mean, you really start to think about the fact that mom has a job to protect her child’s innocence. That’s why she is in the kitchen making the food, that’s why she is deliberate when it comes to anything that goes on that child’s skin or in that child’s mouth. She wants as little as possible to get between the raw ingredients and the final pureed food.
“We took that quite literally. It’s one of the reasons that glass was an imperative for this project and why we developed the brand identity the way we did. What we wanted mom to see when she was turning her cart and going down the aisle were the vibrant colors and textures of the products.”
The 4.25-oz custom glass jar, supplied by Owens-Illinois, provides a clear view of the product and is designed with a honeypot shape that conveys a homemade, premium appearance. The design allows the jar to nestle in the hand and provides space for a spoon to wrap 360 deg around the inside, “to scrape out every last ounce of that goodness,” says Hayward. “When you think about canning glass, and when you think about premium, there are reasons that glass is used,” she adds. “It really does connote purity and freshness.”
Notes O-I, because glass does not absorb food colors or smells, the food inside keeps its natural taste, smell, and appearance. The glass jar for Beech-Nut is also designed to stack on shelves at retail and in the home, and is 100% recyclable.
Maximizing the visual clarity of the glass jar and reinforcing the idea of the brand’s transparency, Bluedog selected a clear, pressure-sensitive label to decorate the package. A new Beech-Nut logo takes center stage on the label, using a loose script “that represents the sweet connectivity between mom and baby,” Hayward says. Growing out of the “h” in the Beech-Nut brandmark is a tree graphic that ties the brand back to nature and also alludes to the family-centric nature of the company.
Under the logo is positioned the product variety name in lower-case letters. On the right-hand side of the logo is ingredient photography, showing that “it’s really just the good stuff in there,” says Hayward. Each variety is also labeled in the upper left-hand corner with a 1, 2, or 3, designating stage.
Jars are topped with green, twist-on metal closures, decorated on top with the Beech-Nut logo and on the rim with the repeating copy, “100% natural.”
Visual disruption
After installation of a $10 million state-of-the-art production line at the Amsterdam facility (as reported by an article on timesunion. com), Beech-Nut began production of the new brand, which was launched nationwide in early April. The product carries an average retail price of $1.09—a cost on par or close to that of jarred organic baby foods, and about a third less than the average price for pouched foods in the category, according to Dahlen.
“There are a fair amount of retail stores where we are getting premium placement opportunities, either on the shelf or in end caps or displays,” says Dahlen. “The stopping power of the product at shelf is very strong because of the transparent jar and the great colors we have. So much of the category people view as being grey and beige and just not that colorful. That’s something we sought to disrupt, and we have.”
Adds Hayward, “We are taught in the world of package design that we need to scream our equities as loudly as we can—from 30 feet, from 15 feet, from 10 feet. We broke the rules here. What we really wanted to do is reinforce the food. You see the food; it’s glorious, it’s beautiful, it’s vibrant, it’s textured. It’s real food, and we made room for that food to speak to that authenticity and relevancy on its own. I think we took Andy’s mandate of ‘Be disruptive where you can be disruptive’ seriously.”
To see a spin + zoom 360° photo, click here.
Shelf life of the mixture. How long can dry and ready mix be stored.

05/20/2021 Reading time: 3.5 min

How to store powdered milk formula

On a separate shelf. If your baby is formula-fed or mixed-fed, it's worth setting aside a separate shelf in your kitchen cabinet - or at least a significant part of it - for storing baby food packages and utensils for preparing it. So you will have everything in one place and always at hand, and the mixture will not come into contact with other products and substances. nine0018
Store in a cool, dry place. The dry product is sensitive to changes in humidity and temperature, so do not put the whole or opened pack in the refrigerator. Due to the increased humidity, condensation will appear on the walls of the package, lumps will form in the mixture. You also need to keep the mixture away from the stove, microwave or oven, sink, direct sunlight. The optimum temperature is room temperature, not higher than +25.

Do not overfill. It is better to keep the dry mix in its original packaging, with the carton box closed. So the dry mixture will be less in contact with oxygen, which means that oxidation, due to which the product deteriorates, will go more slowly. In addition, not all containers can be sterilized before pouring dry baby food into them. And on the surface of even clean, in our opinion, dishes, there are enough pathogenic microbes that will actively multiply in such an excellent nutrient medium as milk formula. And even more so, you can’t mix the leftovers from the previous pack with the mixture of powder from the new one or pour the fresh mixture into the jar where the previous one was stored. Convenience and economy are good, but the health of the baby is much more important. nine0018
Sign when opened. An opened pack can be stored no longer than 3-4 weeks. The manufacturer always indicates the specific period on the packaging. To remember exactly when you opened a new pack, make it a habit to sign the date directly on the box or stick a sticker indicating when the package was opened. Of course, most often the pack ends in a few days and you do not have to store it for weeks. But sometimes this information can come in handy: for example, if a child is mixed-fed and the formula leaves a little, if you forgot about the package you started and opened a new one. It is impossible to use a mixture from a pack that has been opened longer than the period allowed by the manufacturer. Even if it has not changed in appearance, smell and even taste, this product is already dangerous for the baby, whose immune and digestive systems are still immature. nine0018

Dry infant formula expiration date

The shelf life of dry infant formula in undamaged original packaging is usually 1.5 years. Be sure to check if it has expired when you buy baby food. Stores, of course, are obliged to ensure that the delay does not stand on the shelves, but your child will have this mixture, so always control this moment.

The expiration date is not set arbitrarily. The manufacturer installs it after rigorous testing and can guarantee that, if properly stored throughout the stated period, infant formula will be safe and retain all its properties. That is, if you see that there are three days left before the expiration date, and your baby copes with a pack of formula in five, then it is better to look for a fresher product. But if there are several weeks before the specified date, and even more so 2-3 months, then be sure that this mixture will be exactly the same in taste, smell and consistency as it just came off the assembly line. nine0010
Throw away the mixture after the expiration date. Of course, it will not deteriorate immediately, as soon as the last seconds of the day are over, but it is possible to find out exactly when this will happen only experimentally. Considering that the health of the child is at stake, it is unacceptable to conduct such experiments.

How to store prepared (reconstituted) infant formula

The most precise instruction on this item fits into one word: no way. In order for the mixture to be exactly safe for the baby, it must be prepared immediately before feeding. nine0010
But there are situations when it is difficult or impossible to fulfill this requirement. For example, while you were diluting the mixture, the baby dozed off, or he mastered only half the portion and became capricious, or you urgently need to leave, and the grandmother, who stayed with the child, is afraid to make a mistake and asks to leave her ready-made food.

Storage advice for reconstituted formula

If it is likely that the child will eat the prepared serving within an hour, you can leave it at room temperature, but be sure to discard after this time. For feeding the baby, this product will no longer be suitable. nine0015

The diluted mixture can theoretically be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 hours. More precisely, this period can be found in the information on the packaging, as it may differ for different types of mixture. But such cases should be the exception, not the regular practice. Yet, both in taste and texture, food that has already stood in the refrigerator will be inferior to freshly prepared. In addition, when putting the finished mixture in the refrigerator, you need to make sure that there are no products with a strong smell, raw meat or fish, unwashed vegetables and fruits on the shelf nearby. nine0015

Reheat the prepared mixture only once. If you don't have a dedicated bottle warmer, place it in a container of hot water, take it out and shake it occasionally to evenly warm the contents. Do not heat the mixture in the microwave.

If you need to take ready-made formula for a walk or leave it for a relative looking after the baby who does not know how to breed baby food, you can get out of the situation quite simply. Measure the right amount of dry mixture and pour it into a sterile bottle. Pour the required amount of boiled water at the temperature required for dilution into a thermos. Before feeding, pour the water from the thermos into a bottle, mix. nine0015

So, when buying infant milk formula, you should remember:

Store the formula in a dry place at room temperature, away from other products and household chemicals.

Unopened infant formula has a shelf life of one and a half years under proper storage conditions. Throughout this period, the mixture retains its properties.

Dilute formula milk immediately before feeding. In exceptional cases, you can store the diluted mixture at room temperature for about an hour and 3-4 hours in the refrigerator. nine0015

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How much and where to store baby food in jars?

Some manufacturers write detailed storage guidelines for sealed and unopened baby food right on the label. These rules must be observed, even if they differ from the rules for storing similar products from other manufacturers. If there is no detailed instruction, use the following recommendations.

Let us remind you once again that even unopened packaging must be stored in a dark, cool place. At temperatures above +25°C, products may deteriorate even in their original packaging.

Porridges for dilution:

The main enemy of dry mixes and porridges is moisture. Therefore, always make sure that the spoon for the porridge set is absolutely dry, and the bag itself is tightly closed after use;

Try to release as much excess air as possible before closing, so that moisture from it is not absorbed into the product; nine0018
Keep an opened bag of porridge in a dry place at room temperature. There is no need to store cereals in the refrigerator, they quickly become damp and spoil there;

Ready diluted porridge can be stored for no more than an hour or two. An opened package can be stored for 2-3 weeks (see manufacturer's instructions). But if after a few days you notice that the powder has become damp, lumps are noticeable in it - throw it away. Even if the product looks normal, but was opened more than three weeks ago, it is dangerous to feed it to a child. You can use leftovers in adult homemade cakes. nine0018

Choose cereals for your baby

Industrial purees

Unopened can can be stored at room temperature in a dark place. An opened jar of fruit and vegetable puree will live in the refrigerator for no more than a day, and only if you follow simple rules.

Select baby puree

Do not bottle feed your baby. Put the desired portion with a clean spoon into a separate container, close the jar with the rest and put it in the refrigerator. Reheat reserved food if needed. You don't need to heat the whole jar. nine0010
If you fed your baby directly from the jar, the shelf life of such a puree is only a few hours even in the refrigerator, since the baby's saliva and bacteria got into the food on the spoon.

Important!

The shelf life of mashed meat after opening is only 24 hours, subject to the same rules. If you bought puree in a metal package, be sure to transfer it to a clean, dry jar and close the lid. It is undesirable to store opened puree in its original packaging and it is recommended to use it immediately. Closed - store in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. nine0010
Homemade cereals

Same rules as for diluted cereals. In the process of cooking, the porridge is ground with a blender and rubbed through a sieve. At this time, microorganisms get into the porridge from the air, so you can’t store such porridge for a long time.

Home-made puree

It is possible to increase the shelf life if the finished puree is poured into small sterilized containers, covered with cling film and immediately put in the freezer. At -18°C, this puree can be stored for up to three months. nine0010
Important!

The finished product is stored in the refrigerator for no more than 6 hours, as bacteria have probably got into it during cooking.
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