-
Period: to
Baby Food
-
First Processed Baby Food Formula
In 1865, Liebig’s Soluble Food for Babies, a delightful mixture of wheat flour, cow's milk, and malt flour, hit the market courtesy of Baron Justus von Liebig, a German chemist whose work contributed to everything from organic fertilizer to Marmite. -
First Canned Baby Food
Harold H. Clapp and his wife Anna created the first canned baby food, Clapp’s Vegetable Soup, in 1922. The Clapps whipped up the soup—a concoction of beef broth, vegetables, and grains—for their sick daughter, and when the tot recovered, the couple began selling it through pharmacies. Clapp’s Baby Foods eventually expanded its flavor options to include 14 varieties of “Junior Foods” such as liver soup and vegetables with bacon, 17 varieties of strained baby food, and pre-cooked cereal. -
Gerber Baby Food Invented
When a pediatrician advised Dorothy Gerber to feed her 7-month-old daughter, Sally, strained vegetables in 1927, Gerber did the straining herself. She quickly realized that her husband’s canning company could do the job much more easily. When plant employees began asking for samples for their own tots, the Gerbers knew they had hit on a good thing. -
Gerber Baby is Selected as Official Trademark
As the Gerbers’ business took off, they needed to market their strained wares. Gerber held a contest in 1928 to find a face for the brand. The winning entry was a simple charcoal sketch of a happy baby by Dorothy Hope Smith. By 1931, Gerber had adopted the sketch as its official trademark, but the baby’s identity remained a mystery for four decades. In 1978, teacher and novelist Ann Turner Cook revealed that she was the model for the Gerber baby. -
Gerber Introduces the Safety Button Cap
Innovative tamper-evident packaging & is one of the first companies to the "Better if used by date" on their products. -
Plum Organics Introduced Baby Food in Pouches
In 2008, Plum Organics, a small California-based company, came up with a new packaging innovation, baby food pouches, that would eventually take the U.S. baby food industry by storm. -
Baby Food to Grow by 22%
Anaylsis estimate that the baby food market will grow by 22 percent between 2012 and 2017, reaching almost $8 billion, due to the design of the stand up pouch.
