Heinz Beef & Vegetable Casserole | Chewsday Review

You'll certainly find fewer jars of baby food than pouches in the supermarkets these days! Let's find out if this one is worth your purchase.

Ingredients

Positives

This jar of baby food only contains 23mg of sodium per 100g. If your baby ate the whole jar, it’d only be about 10% of my suggest daily sodium limit for young babies. Whereas a homemade casserole will be much higher if you add stock, broth, sauces or seasonings.
The sugar content is low (3.2g per 100g) and all naturally occurring. It does contain mostly sweet-tasting veg (pumpkin, sweet potato, corn, carrots, peas) but some “savoury” baby foods contain apple or pear to add extra sweetness, so at least that isn’t the case here.
Fibre is reasonable at 3.2g per jar.
You can reuse or recycle the glass jar.

Negatives

This contains 10% beef, which isn’t a lot… but it is more than many baby foods claiming to be beef/chicken/fish/lamb and vegetables. Heinz seem to sit closer to the 10% mark, but Rafferty’s pouches tend to be the lowest at around 5%.
Thanks to this low beef content, it won’t contain much iron.
This is very low in fat, which is very typical for the ready-made, shelf-stable baby food aisle.

Marketing

Alternatives

As always, ready-made baby foods are convenient and great for when you’re on the go, travelling, rushed or sleep deprived. They’re an easy option but not one I would recommend relying on for every meal.
This jar of Heinz Beef & Vegetable Casserole compares well against some other supermarket brands, so could be an option to have on hand when you need. If you had time you could add a fat source, like olive oil, avocado or some ground nuts or seeds.
Members can find more support choosing pre-packaged baby foods in Baby Mealtimes.

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