In a food industry that is notorious for ingredients not clearly listed on labels and often hidden behind the usual ‘contains added flavours, colours’, finding a true clean label food is hard. But it is the single most important thing when it comes to baby foods. These "free from clean labels" claims can mean for example, sugar-free, no preservatives, no colourings, etc.. Clean Labelling often fulfils the desire for food that is less processed and only includes a short ingredient list. Essentially, clean label means making a product using as few ingredients as possible, and making sure those ingredients are items that consumers recognize and think of as wholesome—ingredients that consumers might use at home. It seeks out foods with easy-to-recognize ingredients. Mother Nurture prides itself on being a truly clean label, as they ensure its labels contain everything with transparent clarity.
Is Mother Nurture really a preservative-free, ‘clean label’?
Mother Nurture works on one founding principle. "I won't offer you my baby food if it isn't something I will not, in complete honesty, give to mine", says one of the founders and mother of 3, Nadia Sunesra. Mother Nurture prides itself on being a truly clean label, as they ensure its labels contain everything with transparent clarity.
For example, when the label reads 'contains ascorbic acid', they make it very easy for new mothers to Google it quickly and understand that it is actually Vitamin C. Ascorbic acid is the scientific name for Vitamin C, a vital nutritional element in your baby’s diet. So, with Mother Nurture, what you see on the label is exactly what you get. Also, unlike other baby food brands, Mother Nurture makes a conscious effort to keep food ingredients that should ideally be nowhere near baby foods, out of their recipes. These are harmful additives such as synthetic food colouring, nitrates/nitrites, traces of heavy metals, soy, sucrose, etc.
Mother Nurture is also 100% preservative-free. They do get asked a lot by concerned mothers, and understandably so. “How do your products have such a long shelflife, when you claim that there are no preservatives?”. But that’s where technology comes into play. Mother Nurture ensures preservative-free baby foods with a 9-month shelf life, by using thermal processing and the science of canning. The brand also used triple-layer barrier cups for their products, to ensure that the contents are locked in without access to oxygen and water vapour. Thus eliminating the change of bacterial growth and other microbial contamination. This is where Mother Nurture technical lead and partner from Australia, Glen Cox expertise comes in to help develop a safe baby food.
So, Mother Nurture is truly good for your babies and toddlers.
Talking of Sugar
Mother Nurture products are 100% free of added sugars. Our recipe creator Nadia Sunesra and our food technologist Glen Cox, would absolutely not budge on this, considering the health implications of adding sugar to baby and infant foods from early age. And so, Mother Nurture’s taste-tested products taste good even without these harmful additives.
But why can we not add any sugar to infant foods? Surely, a little shouldn’t be that harmful.
But it is, and for various reasons. For one, added sugar in baby food can lead to tooth decay. Sugar can also cause early obesity, inflammatory ailments and other health problems in babies and toddlers, and worse, increase their propensity to these ailments even as they grow older. Sugar also interferes with the absorption of essential nutrients such as iron and calcium. These are vital ingredients for your child’s proper growth. Too much sugar and starting sugar too early can increase your child’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Mother Nurture, the home-grown Indian baby foods brand, offers ready-to-eat baby and toddler foods that contain fresh fruits, veggies, and grains. Their mom-made, science-backed recipes are suitable for desi tastes and designed while paying conscious thought to India’s local food culture. All of their baby food recipes contain fresh ingredients sourced locally and internationally from countries like, South Africa and North America to make preservative-free foods according to the three infant growth stages.
Keeping these in mind, and with the thought that Mother Nurture should never offer products that the founders themselves would not give to their infants, their mom-made and science-backed baby foods contain neither sugar nor jaggery. By picking fresh and ripe fruits as ingredients and ensuring that there is no over-processing for flavour loss, the company maintains natural sweetness in their products.
Try their baby foods today. They come in 3-stages. You can check out their offerings here - https://www.mothernurture.in/collections/all
