There’s no doubt that there are so many exciting things to think about when you begin the weaning journey with your little one like choosing a high chair, shopping for snazzy bibs, debating which cup and cutlery is best and deciding what amazing tastes to expose your baby to first... but it’s important not to forget that amongst all of this, any food you serve needs to be safe! Babies and young children don’t have the same immune system as us adults (or even older children) so we need to make sure we’re extra careful with their little tummies! It is estimated that there are 2.4million cases of food borne illness in the UK every year but it’s not just restaurants that can give you food poisoning – You can also make yourself (or your family) ill whilst cooking at home too. The good news is that there are so many things you can do whilst preparing food to prevent this…. Keep it Clean When preparing food for your little one, keeping clean is so important! In reality, this doesn’t mean having a ‘spotless’ kitchen but instead, a clean environment where you prepare food, with clean hands using clean equipment! Here’s some top tips to help you organise your kitchen to help you safely prepare meals for your baby and the rest of the family…. Wash your hands – Always wash your hands thoroughly before preparing any food, and after handling raw meat Clean work surfaces - Disinfect food preparation surfaces using a clean dishcloth before starting any food preparation. If you can, use a paper towel squirted with anti-bacterial spray to clean surfaces after preparing raw meat and poultry as this will help make sure that you don’t pick up food poisoning germs and spread them around the kitchen! Clean utensils – Make sure equipment is clean before you start using it and if you can, opt for colour coded equipment to reduce the risk of cross contamination between raw and ready to eat foods. Never prepare ready to eat food such as salad on a board that was previously used to prepare raw meat. Wash fruit and Veg – They might be low risk foods, but bacteria can also be found on fruit and veggies too so don’t forget to wash these thoroughly under cold running water before serving to baby. If you’re using frozen veggies in baby’s food, make sure that these are cooked before serving to your baby according to the back of pack information. Don’t be tempted to wash raw chicken! Washing your chicken will not ‘wash off’ the bacteria (only cooking will make it safe to eat!). If you wash chicken, you are instead more likely to cause food poisoning by inadvertently spreading more bacteria around the kitchen. Cooking Cooking veggies by steaming/ boiling or roasting is pretty straightforward, but those first tastes don’t last for long and you’ll soon be branching out to more exciting foods for your baby to try, many of which may include meat or fish. Regardless of how you serve meat to your little one, it’s important to make sure that it is thoroughly cooked. Remember - Just because it’s cooked on the outside, doesn’t mean it is cooked on the inside! Here’s how you can check that meat is safe to eat… Use a food probe – Checking the temperature of the thickest part of meat is the most accurate way (and the way I would recommend) to check food is cooked, whilst also making sure it is not overcooked! If using a probe, make sure the probe is clean and the meat has a core temperature of 75C for at least 30 seconds. Cut into the thickest part of the meat to make sure there is no pink meat visible The meat must be steaming hot throughout Meat juices run clear

One of the things I ALWAYS get asked is whether it is safe to reheat rice! If you’re anything like me, I can never seem to gauge just how much rice to actually cook so I always seem to have left-overs. But, what’s all the fuss about with leftover rice? It’s important to know that if cooked rice is not handled correctly, it can make you (or your little one) violently ill. Rice contains bacteria called Bacillus cereus. Bacillus cereus is a spore forming bacteria; meaning that it forms protective layers (spores) which survive the heat of cooking. If cooked rice is left at room temperature for too long, then the bacteria can multiply and produce toxins; which can cause food poisoning. It’s important to point out here that once these toxins are present, they will NOT be killed by further reheating; regardless of reheating until piping hot! So, how can you handle leftover rice safely? How quickly you cool rice after cooking is critical in ensuring that your leftover rice will be safe to use. You should always make sure your rice is always cooled down as quickly as possible, but always within an hour and a half! This doesn’t mean just putting cooked rice straight in the fridge though…….. Simply putting hot rice in the fridge may not be enough to help cool it down quickly, especially as this will also raise the temperature of the fridge itself. Instead, I’d recommend stirring rice regularly and helping to speed up the cooling process either by: Running it under cold water (this works great if you’ve not added anything to the rice!) Dividing it into smaller portions Stirring regularly Using a homemade ‘ice bath’ – Like this….

The prevalence of allergies across Europe has sharply increased over the past 20 years and in the UK, it is estimated that over 2 million people are living with a diagnosed food allergy, excluding those with food intolerances. Whether you have personal experience of living with a food allergy, have dealt with it when weaning or have simply heard some of the tragic stories of others, there’s no doubt that allergies is something we have all become more aware of over the past few years! Dealing with food allergies can be a daunting and overwhelming experience so if you or your little one is diagnosed with an allergy, you may feel anxious. Hopefully this blog will help to give you confidence in understanding food labels by identifying exactly what is required by law, what a food label should look like, may contains as well as busting some common food allergy myths! 🥜 Allergen Labelling What’s required by law? Since 2014, it has been a legal requirement for all food businesses in the UK to declare if any food they provide contains any of the 14 major allergens as an ingredient. Whilst you may have an allergy outside of the 14, these allergens are the only ones that are required to be declared by law: Celery – (May also be listed as celeriac) Cereals containing Gluten (such as barley, wheat, oats, rye, spelt) Crustaceans (such as prawns, crabs and lobsters) Eggs Fish Lupin Milk Molluscs (such as mussels and oysters) Mustard Nuts (tree nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios and macadamia nuts) Peanuts Sesame Soybeans (soya) Sulphites If you or your child is allergic to an allergen outside of the major 14, then you should still be able to identify whether it is present (or not) in pre-packed food by checking the full ingredient list…. It might just take a little longer to spot! How to identify food allergens on packaging? For any pre-packed food, you will always be able to find the allergens within a product by checking the ingredients list on the back of pack. In compliance with European legislation, allergens must be emphasised on the label of prepacked food; which could either be bolded, highlighted or underlined. Just remember to check the food label every time, even if you’ve purchased a food before as ingredients and recipes can change! Here’s an example of how easy it should be to spot any of the 14 major allergens when reading a food label...

It is really important to embed a good hand washing routine as early on in life as possible. As your baby progresses into a toddler, it’s important to change your hand washing technique as they grow, keeping it fun whilst giving them lots of praise and encouragement! Here’s some ideas how you can start getting your toddler involved in washing their hands and help them to understand that it’s an important part of their daily routine… Get a step stool so they can reach the sink themselves Give them independence – Toddlers LOVE the feeling of being able to do something for themselves, so supervise to make sure they wash their hands properly but let them do the main work themselves. Always communicate with them to tell them it’s time to wash their hands and why (it’s dinner time for example!) Sing a song with them whilst they wash their hands. Hands should be washed for 20 seconds which is enough time to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice, but you could always sing along to a nursery rhyme or any other song your child loves to make sure they stay at the sink long enough! Teach them the importance of washing their hands using body paint or glitter every so often so that they have a visual aid of how they need to wash their hands for them to be clean .. And don’t forget to also wash your hands at the same time! Not only will this help keep everyone safe, but seeing you lead by example will be a great learning tool for your little one from any age.

Anyone who has begun weaning their little one can sympathise it gets MESSY! But what about cleaning your baby before mealtimes?! We should always wash our own hands before eating and babies’ hands are no different... especially once they are old enough to start eating, crawling and getting into all sorts of mischief! Hand washing is the simplest, yet most effective way to stop the spread of bacteria and therefore keep our babies safe and protected from illnesses. For some tips on washing your baby’s hands; including the logistics and what to use on baby’s skin, I’ve answered some of the common hand washing questions below…. How should you wash your baby’s hands? One of the most straightforward ways to wash your baby’s hands is of course to hold your baby over the sink, balancing them on your knee and washing their hands with soap and water as you would your own (being careful not to press little one’s tummy into the sink whilst doing so). However, if the logistics of doing this isn’t for you (especially when your baby is little), then you can also apply soap to their hands using a dampened soapy washcloth instead, using another dampened with just water to wipe away the soap. Remember you can also put the bowl of soapy water in front of baby or toddler, using a cloth to make sure you get in between all of their fingers, and again use a damp cloth to clean off the soapy residue. Just make sure when you’re drying their hands, the towel is clean and dry.

The weaning journey with your little one is such an exciting time for so many reasons, but let’s be honest…. Regardless of whether you’re a ‘working mum’ or a ‘stay at home’ mum, preparing 3 meals a day can be nothing short of exhausting! Grabbing a home cooked meal from the freezer after a busy day or when you quite frankly just need a break is why batch cooking, or freezing portioned leftovers, is an absolute lifesaver! Whether you’re at the start of your weaning journey or not, this blog will give you some pointers about batch cooking to help you stock up your freezer safely. Remember that infants and young children do not have the same immune system as us adults so it’s always important to be extra careful when preparing and handling food for your little one. What foods can be batch cooked? You can of course make recipes specifically to portion and freeze, or you could just make more of what you’re already cooking so you can pop the leftovers in the freezer ready for another day! Whichever way you decide to batch cook, the good news is that you can freeze almost anything!! That’s right… even if you defrost raw chicken, meat or fish from the freezer, you can still portion and freeze the leftovers of the cooked meal to reheat another day! It’s important to remember here that you aren’t ‘re-freezing’ the meat as it has been cooked in between. The only exception to freezing of course are when you are simply reheating a previous meal, as you can only reheat food once.