Once Upon A Farm Talks Challenges Facing HPP Baby Food

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Baby food may be meant for those who crawl, but the category’s pioneers are looking to take their first steps to success by embracing advancements in processing technology.

Adults are reaching for healthier options and cleaner labels for themselves, and they’re also doing the same for their children. But as grocery continues to adapt to consumer demands for freshness, baby food has been a category more hesitant to embrace these trends — and some emerging companies think it’s time for a Growth Spurt.

Refrigerated baby food brands like Pure Spoon, Once Upon A Farm (OUAF) and So Good Baby are looking to push the category into a “chillier” direction by using High Pressure Processing (HPP) to create extended shelf-life, refrigerated purees with increased nutritional value for consumers’ children.

It’s been three years since Pure Spoon pioneered the category with its launch into Whole Foods Market coolers, and, though refrigerated baby food is still a small segment, it’s growing. Shelf stable baby food brought in over $5.8 billion in 2016 and still dominates natural, conventional and specialty outlet retailers, but it saw about a 1.3 percent decline in 2017, according to data from SPINS, a retail data and research provider. Refrigerated baby food, however, saw 431 percent growth with its launch into the market, going from $57,152 to $303,549 in sales during the same time frame.

The greatest uncertainty surrounding the category is what exactly it will take for HPP purees to become “baby food 3.0” — and if retailers will be willing to invest the time and money to find out.

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