Kids’ food squeezables are popular, but are they safe?

They are eagerly grabbed by millions of pudgy fingers across the U.S. and the parents who wipe them clean. Usually brightly colored with chunky graphics, they deliver delicious snacks of fruit, vegetables and yogurts.

These delights of 21st-Century childhood are kids’ squeezable food pouches, a favorite especially of babies and toddlers who are on the cusp of demanding independence. For mothers and fathers, they’re a convenient snack brought out of diaper bags to squeals, quickly popped into mouths to feed themselves.

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But even as the pouches grow in popularity, a couple of recent manufacturer recalls have raised some safety concerns among parents, both about the packaging and the product itself.

Twice this spring, baby food manufacturers have issued recalls of pouches. Both companies have Michigan ties, but a search of the Food and Drug Administration recall database shows Gerber and GoGo Squeez are not alone.

In March 2014, Plum Organics recalled some of its World Baby pouch products because of damage to spouts during manufacturing that could make small pieces break off and become a choking hazard. They received about 14 consumer complaints but no report of injuries, and the announcement advised not to give the pouches to kids.

Four months earlier, Plum Organics recalled pouch products from its Baby Stage 2, Tots Mish Mash and Kids lines because of a manufacturing defect that may cause spoilage. And in October 2009, the same company recalled a batch of apple and carrot baby food pouches due to potential Clostridium botulinum contamination, which can cause sometimes life-threatening botulism.

In January 2010, Nurture recalled some Happytot and Happybaby pouch meals, because of a packaging defect that potentially could cause the pouches to swell or leak, possible indications of illness-causing bacteria.

“[T]here is no known reason to believe that the two voluntary ‘pouch’ recalls in 2016 are related or indicate a broader problem with ‘pouch’ packaging. As a result, the FDA does not at this time have any concerns about baby food ‘pouches’ in general,” the FDA said in an e-mail to the Free Press.

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In March, Materne North America recalled GoGo Squeez applesauce because of possible adulteration after dried apple residue was discovered on equipment at its Traverse City plant. (This was caught during an inspection that itself was prompted by an autumn 2015 recall due to mold.)

Later that month, Gerber, founded in Fremont in Newaygo County in 1928 and currently owned by Nestle, recalled some of its Organic 2nd Foods Pears Carrots & Peas 3.5-ounce pouches due to a packaging defect that makes the food inside “susceptible to spoilage during transport and handling.”

Amber Beaton of Lake Orion was feeding her 3½-year-old twins GoGo Squeez pouches when they were recalled. She used them as what she called meal supplements for Camille and Calvin, who like going to the fridge to help themselves, but that stopped immediately.

“When they got recalled, I just wasn’t comfortable with it, but I wasn’t ready to make my own applesauce or fruit pouches, so we switched to a different brand,” said the 38-year-old mom. “It is concerning. You do wonder what’s really in there. I think if I can pronounce the ingredients on the back, I feel a bit less concerned.”

The general trend in packaging is toward that which is lighter weight and uses fewer materials, because those factors help reduce manufacturing and transportation costs.

The appeal of the pouch — or retort packaging, in industry parlance — is that food can be cooked in the sealed package to get rid of all the pathogenic microorganisms that might be living inside.

“These pouches are designed to be able to sterilize the food, so you kill all the nasty organisms within the package,” Susan Selke, director of the Michigan State University School of Packaging, said. “Then, you have a product that’s safe to put on shelves in stores, that won’t grow nasty things that might kill you.”

That’s why the military launched MREs in this form decades ago, she said. From there, pouches migrated to the civilian world, but as a specialty items. They proved much more popular overall in Europe and Japan. Campers ate food in pouches for the same reason parents would years later — convenience, weight, safety. The breakthrough to the mainstream was tuna fish.

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Because the shape of the pouches are different than, say, cans, manufacturers don’t have to worry about the middle of the package, which takes the longest to cook. By eliminating overcooking, the end product is higher quality and better tasting, she added. But, unlike the well-established technology of cans. the plastic needs to be sealed, and seals can get weak.

“You’re depending on melting plastic together and staying together. Because they have to stand up to high temperatures of the retort. It’s going to be harder to put the seal together in the first place. It’s more technically challenging,” Selke added.

An issue with baby food jars, the traditional packaging, was that if one of the small containers broke during production, the entire manufacturing line had to be shut down and the products discarded out of fear that flying glass shards had landed in one of the neighboring jars, she explained. The costs associated with shut down, clean and restart were huge.

In fact, the little glass jars were dominant for a half century, precisely because of what they were made of — and the transparency that came with that.

“Mothers could see the contents, check for color, visible spoilage, etc.,” Amy Bentley, New York University professor and author of “Inventing Baby Food: Taste, Health, and the Industrialization of the American Diet,” said in an e-mail. “The pouches became popular, in part because there was no longer that intense need to visually inspect the contents before purchasing. Americans were confident of the quality. Maybe we will return to such an earlier more skeptical era.”

Once baby food producers embraced pouches, they became incredibly popular and boosted sales in a somewhat sagging sector, she explained. First were the boutique baby food makers; then, the major manufacturers joined in once they proved to be a hit.

“Parents liked them because they were so portable. Baby food companies loved them, because they extend the use of baby food by about a year, because parents use them for toddler snacks. Kids can just sit in their strollers and suck on them and require no adult feeding,” Bentley said.

But not everyone loves them, Bentley notes. “Pediatricians worry about tooth decay.”

Contact Zlati Meyer: 313-223-4439 or zmeyer@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @ZlatiMeyer

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