Serenity Kids launches Meat + Herb baby food targeting critical flavor window

18 Mar 2022 --- Serenity Kids is launching three Meat + Herb infant food purees in support of the Veggies Early & Often initiative, which highlights the necessity of sustainable farming and diverse veggie intake from a young age. Later this year, the company plans to launch another line targeting older children and toddlers.

Flavors include Grass-Fed Beef & Ginger with Organic Red Bell Pepper & Broccoli, Free-Range Chicken & Thyme with Organic Parsnip & Beet and Pasture-Raised Turkey & Rosemary with Organic Purple Carrot, Zucchini, & Celery.

The pouches contain vitamins, antioxidants and minerals, and the new flavors will help young children develop complex palates to enjoy healthier options as they grow older. Joe Carr, co-founder and president of Serenity Kids, tells NutritionInsight: “Our culinary recipes were created to introduce savory flavors and to add fiber and diversity to the gut microbiome.”

The Grass Fed Beef & Ginger flavor will be the first product in the range to be verified by LTM, a program launched by the Savory Institute.The range is supported by Partnership for Healthy America and certified by Land to Market (LTM), whose verification process guarantees that an animal product came from land scientifically proven to be regenerating year after year.

Expanding partnerships with nonprofits
Carr says the Veggies Early & Often initiative serves to pick up where government and industry have “failed” regarding child health and environmental sustainability. 

“We hope to consistently expand our partnership with LTM, use more LTM verified meat in our products and work together to build the regenerative movement. We are excited to build our partnership with PHA to help educate parents about the importance of vegetables and ensure more children have access to these nutritious foods.”

He says the company will continue to help drive this change by launching well-labeled products featuring “cutting-edge ingredients from quality plant and animal sources that contain a savory taste that expands a baby’s palate during the critical flavor window.” 

The flavor window
Carr explains the flavor window is the period of time in which humans are most receptive to a variety of new flavors. For most, it opens between ages four to seven months and gradually closes by about 18 months.

By introducing the rich flavor of vegetables that haven’t been prominently featured on the baby food aisle, Carr says Serenity Kids exposes diverse flavors and textures during the open flavor window. He affirms this can help make children less picky eaters in the long-term.Carr says the baby food space has struggled with transparency and quality issues.

“Fibrous organic vegetables and functional herbs like ginger, rosemary and thyme, pack in nutrition and add diversity into the gut and everyday meals.”

He says before consumer demand for healthy infant nutrition solutions rose exponentially in recent years, baby food was not nutritionally balanced. “Organic baby foods were overwhelmingly fruit-based with an average of 9 g sugar per pouch. Further, less than 4% contained meat, and less than 1% contained a significant amount of fat.”

Additionally, he says a lot of baby food is unregulated and unsafe. Just last year, the FDA highlighted plans to slash toxins in baby food in response to controversy regarding heavy metals and inedible substances.

However, he indicates companies can increase their bottom line by embracing the trend toward healthy foods. “Well-sourced meat, regenerative agriculture, transparent sourcing, low sugar, healthy fats, bone broth and grain-free are all big trends, and our sales demonstrate that parents were dying for it.”

By Olivia Nelson with additional reporting from Nicole Kerr