Heinz Pureed Apple & Oatmeal | Chewsday Review

This week we're back in the baby food aisle, but I'm reviewing a jar of baby food instead of the usual pouch! Let's see what Heinz Puree Apple and Oatmeal adds to the market.

Ingredients

Positives

This puree actually contains apple and oats, just like the label says. I know this seems like an obvious point to make, but many store-bought purees are called something fancy, but end up being mainly one ingredient! This product doesn’t contain a huge amount of oatmeal… but you can read more about that below.
These contain no added sugar or no added salt. This is actually a requirement by our food code for all baby food, but sometimes brands will be a little sneaky and add fruit concentrates as a sweetener.
The glass jar can be recycled or reused (although if you’re like me, you’ve got eleventy-million jars in the cupboard already).
A 180g jar costs $1.80 ($1.06 per 100g) at Coles or Woolworths, which means this works out cheaper than most pouches of puree, which are closer to $2 per 100g.

Negatives

This only contains 7% oatmeal, so if your baby ate half a jar that would be equivalent of 6g of oats, which is a light sprinkle at best! To count this as including a grain food, I’d want to add some more oats.
This baby food doesn’t contain any added iron, so isn’t an iron-rich option.
The second ingredient is water, which means it’s the ingredient in the second highest concentration by weight (ie/ there’s more water than there are oats). While at least water isn’t the first ingredient, it still means you’re paying for a product that is likely ~1/3 water.

Marketing

“Made in Australia from 99% Australian ingredients”. This is great to see!
“No artificial colours or flavours.” True, but this isn’t at all surprising for a pre-packaged baby food.
“No preservatives”. True, but the jar has been heat-treated to make it shelf-stable, which can impact some nutrients.
“6 months + mashed”. Being pureed, I would expect this to be a fairly smooth texture, so it’s a little confusing it is labelled as “mashed”. To adjust the texture for your baby you could add extra liquid if needed, or even stir through some quick oats to advance the texture.

Alternatives

Pre-packaged puree often gets a bad rap, but it is convenient and can be helpful at times when you need something that’s easily transportable. I do recommend trying to offer homemade purees, so you can introduce your baby to a wider range of textures and flavours than are available in pre-packaged purees.
There isn’t anything wrong with this product, but really it is just a fruit puree. To add more flavour and variety, you could add it to yoghurt, Little Kids Weet-bix or even add some extra oats or spices.
For a wider range of flavours and textures, I like small batch companies like Tiny Turtle (WA only, code DRKYLA), Tiny Beets (SA, NSW, ACT, QLD, VIC, code BABYMEALTIME10) or Le Puree (SA, QLD, NSW, VIC, code DRKYLA). It’s also nice to support a local business. They do need to be kept frozen which isn’t always as convenient.
If you need more support navigating the baby food aisle, Baby Mealtimes members have access to my guide for choosing pre-packaged purees and many more.

The composition of food products changes regularly. The nutritional values of the products in this Chewsday Review were correct at the time of publishing.