FAQS

The Green One recyclable pouch:

In May 2023 we launched our first fully recyclable pouch: The Green One. Made from mono-material (which is a fancy way of saying it's made of just one material) this new pouch can be popped straight into your recycling bin at home, just remember to keep the cap on!

Pouches + snack wrappers:

Whilst the Green One is the first of our pouches that can be recycled at kerbside, the rest of our pouches + snacks wrappers are not currently accepted for recycling by local councils in the UK but can now be taken to participating supermarket drop off points. To find your nearest store through the Recycle Now website, click here.

We're on the journey to move our entire pasteurised range (that's all our fruit and fruit + veggie combo pouches) to recyclable packaging over the course of 2023-2024. Meaning that by the end of 2024, nearly 75% of all our pouches will now be fully recyclable at kerbside in the UK, which will be a huge milestone! We know how important it is to do our bit to protect the planet for future generations. That's why we're committed to moving to fully recyclable packaging as quickly as possible and are working really hard to find recyclable solutions for the rest of our range.

Card, Pots + Trays:

All our card as well as our plastic pots + trays are fully recyclable and widely collected at kerbside by local councils across the UK.

To find out more about how we are working to improve the sustainability of our packaging, click here.

Our current pouches are made from layers of food-safe plastic sandwiched together and most of them have a layer of aluminium too. The aluminium never comes into direct contact with the food but helps to keep the yummy food inside really tasty and safe for tiny tummies.

Our new monomaterial pouches are technically easier to recycle than the combination of plastic and / or aluminium in our current pouches, and the new pouch has been shown to successfully go through the existing UK recycling system – collected, sorted and recycled. Also because they are a single material and don’t contain aluminium studies show they have a smaller carbon footprint then our existing pouches.

All the cardboard packaging used for our boxes is 100% recyclable and is made from a mix of FSC-certified and recycled sources. We use vegetable inks and water-based coatings to print the boxes and our printing plates are also all chemical free

Our pouches are perfectly fine to be taken on an aeroplane –in fact, our scrummy organic products are available on British Airways + Emirates flights. You can also find them airside at Boots stores!

If you’re putting pouches in your suitcase, we’d recommend wrapping them in a plastic bag, just in case they get spiked or super-squashed, as your suitcases may get thrown around! If you’re taking any into the cabin, we suggest you watch out for overcautious officials who may consider the baby food as liquid and over 100g. We always recommend contacting your airline before you fly.

Yes, you can freeze the contents of our Ella’s Kitchen 4 months pouches + Smoothie Fruits by squeezing them into a sterilised ice cube tray. We don’t recommend freezing our 6, 7 and 10 months pouches or our toddler meals, due to the more grown up ingredients.

We recommend freezing our 4 months products and Smoothie Fruits within 24 hours of opening the pouch, remember to always test the temperature before feeding your little ones. We don’t recommend freezing or refrigerating and then reheating baby food that has already been heated up, as this can be unsafe for little ones.

You can refrigerate our 4 months range for up to 48 hours after opening and you can keep our 6, 7 and 10 months pouches in the fridge for up to 24 hours after taking the cap off.

Our 4, 6 + 7 month pouches should never be put in a microwave; there are lots of other easy ways to heat them up!

• The easiest way to warm our 4, 6 + 7 month baby food is to stand the pouch in hot water, giving it a few minutes to heat up
• You can squeeze our yummy baby food into a saucepan and gently heat it up while stirring continuously
• Or, you can squeeze our yummy baby food into a microwavable bowl and heat it up in the microwave

Remember to always test the temperature before feeding heated-up food to your little one.

Our 10 months pouches are perfectly safe to microwave. To warm them up, simply tear off the top of the pouch, stand it on a dish (just in case it spills) and heat it up. Give it a good stir to get rid of any hot spots and, as always, test the temperature before feeding your little one.

For our 12m+ pots, remove the sleeve, pierce the lid and microwave (800W) for 60 seconds, leave to stand and peel off lid. Or just pop the sealed bowl in hot water for 5 minutes. Do no heat in the oven and always test the temperature before feeding to your toddler.

We don’t recommend heating up our yummy yoghurts, Baby Brekkie + dairy free range as it tastes better chilled or at room temperature.

Cooking in batches is great for busy mums, dads + carers so we’ve made sure that the recipes in our Cook Book + recipe hub are suitable for freezing. Here are a few handy hints to help everyone freeze their yummy recipes + stay safe!

1. Make sure the freezer is nice + chilly at -18°c (0°F)
2. Most food is suitable for freezing (except for eggs in their shells) but some foods taste a bit better fresh. Make sure you give foods a good stir when thawed!
3. Meat dishes are safe to freeze for up to 3 months
4. Vegetarian dishes and yummy treats such as cakes + biccies can be kept in the freezer for up to 3 months
5. Attach a sticky label to your containers so you know when you need to use them by
6. You can cook stews, sauces + joints of meat straight from frozen – just remember to adjust your cooking time to make sure the food is piping hot all the way through before you serve it up!
7. Make sure you defrost your food safely. Cover it up + pop it in the fridge, put it in an airtight container in cold water or zap it in the microwave. These 3 ways make sure that nasty bacteria can’t get into the food whilst it’s defrosting
8. With all other food, make sure it’s completely defrosted before reheating it. Always heat it until it’s piping hot + give it a stir to make sure that there are no hot (or cold!) spots. Allow to cool to the right temperature before giving to your little one.
9. Rice can be safely frozen + reheated, as long as it’s cooled quickly after cooking by placing the container in an ice bath either in the sink or a roasting tin. It’s best to do this within an hour. You can reheat the frozen rice in the microwave until it’s piping hot
10. Use your food as soon it’s defrosted – don’t leave it lying around where bad bacteria can get to it
11. And finally… remember, it’s not safe to refreeze previously frozen food.

Sensory food play is simply guided play which encourages little ones to explore food with all of their senses – using the power of play as a learning tool in the early years.

Sensory food play is a fun and easy way to help children eat more fruit + vegetables by building their confidence curiosity to increase their willingness to try healthy food.

There is growing evidence that this type of educational play can increase a child’s willingness to try new fruit + veg, which can in turn become a liking for them, ultimately helping to set the healthy food habits that can last a lifetime.

Sensory food play in early years settings focuses on engaging all the senses to teach little ones about healthy food in a fun + engaging way. Children are encouraged to use their creativity, curiosity, and imagination to explore fruit and vegetables in an educational environment, guided by an early years educator. This helps increase their confidence and break down barriers when it comes to trying and accepting new food.

This isn’t about making macaroni necklaces, throwing spaghetti around or crafting with cereal – this is evidence based, purposeful, and educational play-based learning that is cost-effective, easy to implement, and could help more little ones across the country eat more fruits and veggies and ultimately grow up healthy + happy!

That’s why we are calling on the government to ensure sensory food play is offered in all early years settings.

Absolutely! Sensory food play at home is a great way to engage your little one with healthy food inside and outside of mealtimes. Whilst this is a little different to sensory food play in an educational setting, the principles are similar and we have lots of fun activities and tips to help you and your little ones give it a try – just follow this LINK: https://www.ellaskitchen.co.uk...

There is growing evidence from across the world that sensory food play can help little ones eat more fruit + veg, and develop healthy relationships with food.

The evidence shows three key things:

1. Sensory food play in the early years can help improve a child’s curiosity about, and willingness to try, new food they otherwise might not.
2. It can expand the amount of fruit + veg little ones know and like – giving it the clear potential to increase the amount of fruit + veg little ones eat for the long term.
3. It has the greatest benefit for those little ones who have either not had access to, or are less accepting of, fruit + vegetables before they begin sensory food play – who are sometimes from less affluent backgrounds

We’d like to see more research done on how best to teach sensory food play in early years settings, which is why we’re working with Flavour School and the Early Years Alliance to set up pilots in early years settings in England.

Our nation’s little ones simply don’t eat enough fruit + veg. In fact, only 18% of children aged 5-15 eat the recommended five portions of fruit + veg a day, and 29% aged 5-10 eat less than one portion a day. As a nation, we are failing to build the healthy food habits our little ones need to stay happy + healthy, with more than 1 in 4 children being diagnosed as overweight or living with obesity by the time they enter primary school. We need to do more to help protect the health of our nation’s children.

The worsening situation across the country puts significant strain on our shared resources, with the National Health Service and social care providers struggling to treat illness, injury and disease caused by poor diet.

It is far more cost effective to treat problems before they occur. That means starting early to set habits that will allow children to grow up healthy, reduce diet-related illness, and minimise the burden on the NHS.

Research shows that simply telling a child what to eat or educating them about why they should stay away from junk food, isn’t effective. Little ones need more creative interventions that begin as early as possible and harness their tendencies to explore the world through play – helping them fall in love with fruit + veg and overcome fears about new foods. That’s where sensory food play comes in!

We believe that every little one should have this educational opportunity, but we can’t make this happen alone. We need your support.

Sensory food play in early years settings only needs a very small amount of fruit + veg for a really fun and effective lesson, and early years practitioners can easily adapt lessons to keep food waste to an absolute minimum. For example, it is often possible to use fruits and veggies that are left-over from mealtimes, or would otherwise not be eaten.

If you’re trying sensory food play at home, there’s nothing wrong with using the fruits + veggies in a meal afterwards as long as you make sure little hands are nice and clean before you play! You can also use peelings and off cuts for sensory play to help avoid waste.

Some sensory food activities do end in waste, but the amount of food not eaten is generally no more than you would expect to be made by an enthusiastic little one at mealtimes.

In the long-term, sensory food play can actually help tackle food waste overall, by helping little ones fall in love with fruit + veg and reducing the chances of them rejecting healthy food at home.

Ella's Kitchen was founded with a mission to improve children's lives through developing healthy relationships with food. We have long campaigned on a range of issues associated with early childhood nutrition, and a big part of this is making sure little ones have access to healthy foods like fruit and vegetables, and are given the opportunities to grow up loving them!

We already work with lots of amazing food access charities and organisations like FareShare and Community Shop, but we also recognise that more needs to be done to increase the amount of fruit and veggies that little ones eat, no matter their background. The sad fact is that many little ones simply aren’t getting the nutrition they need to grow up healthy and happy. That’s why we decided to follow the evidence, working with some of the UK’s leading food education, nutrition, and early years experts, which led us to sensory food play.

Ultimately, we believe that the only way to create positive change is by getting involved, and that all businesses have a responsibility to use their influence to help make the world a better place. That’s why we were one of the first businesses in the UK to become a B Corp, why we’ll always be the little ones’ lobbyists, and why we’ll always champion business as a force for good!

We want to see sensory food play rolled out in all early years settings across the UK. That’s why we’re calling on the UK Government to:

1. Amend the Early Years Foundation Stage to include sensory food play as part of the Managing Self Early Learning Goal.
2. Support early years educators by providing comprehensive, age appropriate, Department for Education-approved guidance on how to carry out sensory food play in early years settings.
3. Provide ring-fenced funding for sensory food play for less affluent early years settings.

By adding sensory food play to the Early Years Foundation Stage (the equivalent of the curriculum), all early years settings will be encouraged to deliver this, meaning we can reach every little one.

The Department for Education approved guidance for early years educators will ensure the activities are delivered in an effective way, and the call for ring-fenced funding will help those early years settings that cater to little ones from the least affluent backgrounds have the same access to sensory food play as their peers.

Taken together, all our policy asks are designed to make sure that sensory food play is delivered in a safe, effective, and evidence-based way that will achieve maximum impact and reach every little one, no matter their background.

The cost-of-living crisis is at the forefront of our minds in launching this campaign, which is why we’ve engaged with food access charities in arriving at this policy ask and have a section on cost-of-living in our policy paper. We’ve also worked with some of the UK’s leading food education, nutrition, and early years experts to make sure what we’re asking for is easy to implement and cost-effective.

We know that 29% of little ones eat less than 1 portion of fruit and veg a day. We also know that 1 in 4 little ones are living with overweight or obesity by the time they start primary school. Sadly, the effects of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis is likely to see this figure rise, not fall. That’s why a low-cost, but potentially high impact, intervention like sensory food play is needed now more than ever. In fact, the research actually shows that this intervention has the greatest benefit for those little ones from the least affluent backgrounds, who are at the most risk of diet related illnesses.

We can’t solve the cost of living crisis that parents face at home, but we can work together to make sure all early years settings have the tools and, importantly, the funding they need to educate little ones about healthy food choices and mitigate the impact of diet related illnesses. That’s why we’re asking Government to fund sensory food play in less affluent early years settings.

Sensory food play should always be supervised, whether it be carried out in an early years setting, or at home. It's also important make sure all the foods offered in sensory play are safe for little ones to avoid choking.

Whole fruit and vegetables, if they are large (e.g. broccoli, apples, carrots) can be given to children in their natural state but chopped raw carrot or apple might not be appropriate for children under 2 years old unless grated. Small round foods like grapes, cherry tomatoes and blueberries should be quartered lengthways and avoid giving them to children under 12m.

For more information on the safe preparation of food for young children, see https://solidstarts.com/foods/

When trying new food you should always be on the lookout for potential allergies, and this is the same for sensory food play. Early years educators are trained to spot the signs of allergies and should have a robust allergy policy in place to help keep little ones safe.

The risk of allergies to vegetables and fruit, which is what we advise is used in sensory food play, is very low compared with common allergens like nuts, milk or egg.

For more advice on common signs of an allergic reaction and what to do, click here: https://www.nhs.uk/start4life/...

As a B-Corp, we believe that businesses shouldn’t opt out of the big issues that make life harder for our future generations.

Everyone - whether business, politician, charity, or campaigner – has a collective responsibility to work together and solve the challenges that little ones face. From working to end child poverty + food insecurity, improving childhood nutrition, to tackling the climate crisis – we ALL need to put little futures first.

This means that sometimes, Ella’s Kitchen will use our voice as the number one baby and kids’ food brand to support causes that matter to us, our customers, and the country. Our commitment is to do this responsibly, and in a way that can create long-lasting, meaningful change that helps every little one to grow up happy, health + never hungry.

That’s why we created our Advocacy Promise – a set of rules that we will always follow when advocating for change. These rules promise to advocate for good, not for profit; be evidence led; be open and honest about what we’re calling for; to lead by example; and to stay non-political. In following these rules, we want people to feel confident that we’re only ever calling for things that we truly believe will make a positive difference to the lives of little ones.

Find out more about our Advocacy Promise, why we advocate, and our advocacy work.

The recyclable pouches developed will carry the OPRL logo 'cap on' recycling message- as to be successfully sorted + detected for recycling they need the 'cap on' as the cap provides the weight needed for it to be detected and separated into the relevant recycling streams.