My daughter is 6 months old and, i'm making her own baby food because I compared the Gerber "All Natural Carrots" with my own & OMG what a huge freaking difference. What kills me is on the label it says the only ingrediants are carrots and water. But, if this is the case how come their version of carrots are 5x sweeter and the color is a dark orange rather a bright vibrant orange?
I'm just saying beware because companies will jump on hot marketing advertising words like "organic" "all natural" but I think they must find loop holes where they can claim they're product is all natural but it really isn't what you think.
S.
All great responses! I didn't know about the different carrot varieties and I'm glad a lot of you agreed with me about companies using good keywords that are trendy to sell their product. Were doing what's right and cheapest for us. Moms gonna make it herself :)
Gerber was bought by Nestle - the main company who makes formulas. They've been boycotted on a global scale 3 times in 20 years... I tend to stay away from Nestle and the like when it comes to infant & toddler nutrition.
It might be fun to plant some carrots in your garden - you would be shocked how different varieties have different tastes. The carrots you buy in most grocery stores are bred to be huge and bright orange, but the taste suffers somewhat, and they tend to be a bit more acidic. Some of the heirloom carrot varieties are a more burnt orange color (and some are even yellow or red, believe it or not!), and have a wide range of tastes, including sweet ones. Just so you know! ;)
All food producers in America are required to tell you what's in their product, even if it's only a very small amount. If it's listed as "organic," then it is. If there's no sugar listed on the label, then they didn't add sugar. This is an FDA requirement, and large and small companies alike are audited by FDA inspectors. There was a story a while back about a baby food processor in Visalia that was shut down by the FDA due to some problems found there. It was some fancy brand that Whole Foods carried, that I had bought before thinking it was better than the cheaper brands! :( Anyhow, that's not to say Gerber baby food is fabulous. It's not. Homemade is better. But you don't need to be afraid of canned, I don't think.
There are a lot of different varieties of carrots. Maybe they use a sweeter variety? Maybe the carrots they use are picked earlier, later? Could be many different things. Try emailing the company and see what they say, couldn't hurt.
duly noted.
you do know there are tons of types of carrots, right? cook times, methods, etc...there are tons of variables. i would be more surprised if home made and store bought looked exactly the same, than if they didn't.
I agree that their process for preparing and canning and the type of carrots they use makes a huge difference.
Legally they really do have to state what goes into their products. If you do not think it is true, call their help line or call the FDA and ask.
Heck there are times when I purchase carrots and they are almost tasteless and other times, I can eat the whole bunch they are so good.
I would get a simmilar color when I used carrots that I roasted when I made a pot roast. I would put extra carrots in my pot roast ... my son LOVED it! Then I made him a mash up of all the veggies and he loved that ... then added a touch of the actual meat and now he LOVES to eat pot roast - good thing I make it twice a month!
Gerber sucks.
What Pamela said.
Nestle is the devil.
Lol. ;)
Homemade with organic produce is the only way to go when it comes to babyfood.... Of course anything that says all natural on it's label is an immediate red flag for me...that term is usually put there more for marketing purposes rather than informative ones. As for organic baby food, I can't speak about all of them but I do know that even though earth's best is considered one of the better brands, their baby food contains A LOT of salt, something that our little ones can do without. Also, baby food that is sold in plastic containers ( i.e. gerbers organic line) should be avoided since BPA ends up leaching into the food. As for the all natural carrots tasting terrible, as already mentioned in another response, they ALWAYS have additional ingredients added that they don't list, and legally they don't have to. Something has to be added into the carrots (or any other baby food for that matter) to preserve them for that long unrefrigerated.
Again, home made organic baby food is the surest way to safely feed our children.
Natural means nothing. It has no legal definition and can legally be put on anything. You can have "natural MSG". You can have "all-natural parabens!" Or "natural plastic goodness!"
Organic is also problematic. Organic does have a legal definition, but there are lots of loopholes.
It's also legal to leave a lot of things out on the ingredient label. That's an interesting loophole too.
If you want high-quality safe food, there's really only one way. Know your farmer. Do your research. Ask questions. Make your own.
I think a lot of the issue too is that although they don't use preservatives, the color changes after being packed air tight like that, it can darken. I noticed a big difference in color as well when I made my own food, and it's so easy so I'm glad you're doing it too!
The Gerber carrots are THE worst! They taste AWFUL!! I remember (3.5 years ago) getting those for my daughter once, ONCE, I always tasted what I gave her, (usually Earth's Best or homemade, but deviated from time to time) and the Gerber carrots were disgusting!! Lol.. I never got them again! Not sure HOW people feed them to their children? Maybe they never tasted them! LOL...
