While we have more knowledge about kids’ nutrition today than ever before, many of us also have less time to devote to it. Enter the growing band of companies who deliver delicious super-charged meals direct to your door.
Increasingly sophisticated online ordering technology makes food delivery companies all the more appealing to us time-poor consumers. According to the data company, statista.com, the overall delivered food market was estimated to be worth £6.2 billion in 2017 and it is expanding all the time. The most captive audience of them all? Busy parents who worry about their children’s nutrition, surely.
Here are five of the best kids’ food delivery companies around.
SMART INFUSED FUD
Everyone is talking about this brand-new business, which is a total godsend for parents. Set up by four mothers, it is the UK’s first range of frozen food that contains all-natural ingredients and is dedicated to the mental health and wellbeing of children.
Currently, the range consists of Vit A Sausage Casserole, B3 Fruity Chicken, B9 Lentil Shepherds Pie, Omega 3 Fishcakes, B12 Lamb Tagine and Iron Chilli Con Carne. Each of the dishes are developed by nutritional therapists, created in a professional London kitchen and then delivered, frozen, to parents.
Smart Infused Fud founder, Hattie Mauleverer, says: “Children today live in a really fast world. The last thing that is good for them is watching their parents rushing around with pots and pans while they try to catch up on their emails and help with homework all at once. This takes one thing of the post-school chaos list.”
COOK
You must be familiar by now with the wonders of COOK’s adult dishes. Its pies, stews and curries have been saving the bacon of overwrought hostesses since 1997. But you need also to know about its kids’ meals and the fact that the company delivers.
Their vast range of delicious meals for small people includes macaroni cheese, cottage pie, chicken paella and sausage casserole. They make sure their dishes contain no additives, no added salt and at least one portion of vegetables. Best of all, every time you buy a kids’ meal from COOK, they provide a free school meal for a child in one of the world’s poorest countries through our partnership with One Feeds Two, which. encourages school attendance and helps raise communities out of poverty through education.
Their founding statement was: “To cook using the same ingredients and techniques a good cook would use at home, so everything looks and tastes homemade.” Say no more.
RATATOUIE
Head to Ratatouie for organic baby purees and toddler meals that are flavourful and balanced and packed with wholegrains and vegetables. (They also do mums’ lunches and family dinners, which is a bonus that came about as a result of popular demand.)
The founder and head chef Helene Piquion – who grew up in France but now lives in London – is a single mother with a passion for delicious, nourishing food. She quit her investment-banking job to start the business when her daughter was small. “The convenient baby food ranges I found in supermarkets were colourless, uniformly flavoured and filled with all sorts of nasties. Most products had a shelf-life longer than the age of my daughter, which can only mean a preservation process that kills natural forms of nutrients, minerals or vitamins,” she says.
Via Ratatouie, she aims to broaden little palates with dishes such as Cod, Tomato and Olive Gratin, Spring Garden Chicken Stew and Mango and Kiwi Compote. Pleasingly, the company only uses sustainable packaging and all of their containers can be re-used or recycled.
LITTLE COOKS CO
Want to boost your kids’ nutrition through their snacks and spend quality time with them in the process? Sign up to this clever scheme and receive every month a delicious healthy snack recipe and all the dry, organic ingredients you need to make it. Each recipe is conceived by a registered nutritionist and made and sampled by a team of little cooks – so quality is assured.
Founder Helen Burgess says: “I grew up in a family where the kitchen was the heart of the home. Helping to cook was expected and family dinners were sacrosanct. I have carried this tradition into my own family but have felt the pressures of modern day life.
“Little Cooks Co was born out of a desire to create something that would help put cooking and eating together back at the heart of family life. My hope is that our boxes will help a generation of children to lead healthier, happier lives by teaching them to enjoy cooking and eating healthy food from a young age.”
WILD CHILD
Set up in 2016, Wild Child Kitchen enjoyed two very successful years delivering totally delicious meals to families and nurseries across the capital. The lifestyle website, babyccinokids.com called its launch “wonderful news for busy London parents”. With a focus on organic, seasonal and sustainable ingredients, Wild Child Kitchen has kids’ wellbeing at its heart. The company’s inspirational founder Natasha Lee (who is half Irish, half Malaysian Chinese) says: “We can positively change the way children learn to eat by empowering them to make healthier choices. Having a healthy relationship with food means enjoying what you’re eating, having respect for where it comes from and understanding how it makes you feel.” Wild Child Kitchen is growing fast and poised to announce big plans. In the meantime, pore over their pretty website for lovely recipes and blog posts.
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July 2019