A new food company, set up to look after the little people, is launching its first products, hand-prepared meals for toddlers, this month.
Called Little Dish, it is the brainchild of managing director Hillary Graves and John Stapleton, a co-founder of the New Covent Garden Soup Company, and was created to target what they claim is the untapped toddler food market. Innocent Drinks is an investor in the company.
According to Graves, Little Dish is the first company to market hand-made meals for toddlers, which she said were made from ingredients that can be found in most home kitchens. "We felt that there was a void in the market for one to five-year-olds. There are baby and childrens' ranges but no one is really focused on the toddler market," she said.
So far, the company has developed five adult-inspired dishes - fish pie, mild chicken korma, cottage pie, pasta Bolognese and pasta with cheese, peas & broccoli - which are all priced at £2.29 to £2.49 for 200g. Each contains no added salt or sugar.
The dishes were developed in consultation with a paediatric dietician to give toddlers a balanced diet and to introduce new flavours to their palate, said Graves. The tomato sauce used in the products, for example, contains "hidden" puréed sweet potato, red pepper, carrot and onion. "For mothers of toddlers, nutritional balance is the most important factor when it comes to feeding their kids," she added.
The products will be available to buy online from Ocado from April 11 and will be launching into 20 Waitrose stores across the UK on May 4.
Called Little Dish, it is the brainchild of managing director Hillary Graves and John Stapleton, a co-founder of the New Covent Garden Soup Company, and was created to target what they claim is the untapped toddler food market. Innocent Drinks is an investor in the company.
According to Graves, Little Dish is the first company to market hand-made meals for toddlers, which she said were made from ingredients that can be found in most home kitchens. "We felt that there was a void in the market for one to five-year-olds. There are baby and childrens' ranges but no one is really focused on the toddler market," she said.
So far, the company has developed five adult-inspired dishes - fish pie, mild chicken korma, cottage pie, pasta Bolognese and pasta with cheese, peas & broccoli - which are all priced at £2.29 to £2.49 for 200g. Each contains no added salt or sugar.
The dishes were developed in consultation with a paediatric dietician to give toddlers a balanced diet and to introduce new flavours to their palate, said Graves. The tomato sauce used in the products, for example, contains "hidden" puréed sweet potato, red pepper, carrot and onion. "For mothers of toddlers, nutritional balance is the most important factor when it comes to feeding their kids," she added.
The products will be available to buy online from Ocado from April 11 and will be launching into 20 Waitrose stores across the UK on May 4.
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