Wednesday, July 2, 2008

A New Puff in Town

I've had a few moms ask me about a more natural alternative to Gerber Puffs, which are full of HFCS and ingredients I can't pronounce (not to mention expensive!). I used to recommend organic crisp rice cereal or oat o's (my fave: Joe's Os from Trader Joes). Problem with those is, the rice is tiny and not great for training little fingers, and the Os don't dissolve.

Michael and I have enjoyed snacking on Pirate Booty for years, but I just recently discovered Fruit Booty and Veggie Booty!

Compare ingredients.

PUFFS (sweet potato): Rice Flour , Whole Grain Oat Flour , Wheat Starch , Wheat Flour , Sugar , Sweet Potato Powder , Tri- and Dicalcium Phosphate , Natural Flavor , Annatto Extract Color , Mixed Tocopherols - for Freshness , Zinc Sulfate , Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate - Vitamin E , Electrolytic Iron

VEGGIE BOOTY: Corn Meal, Rice, Soy Flour, Rice Flour, Corn, Sunflower and/or Rice Oil, Salt, Spinach Powder, Evaporated Cane Juice, Broccoli Powder, Kale Powder, Carrot Powder, Cabbage Powder, Parsley Powder, Calcium Carbonate (Baking Soda), and Sea Salt.

FRUITY BOOTY: Corn Meal, Organic Soy Flour, Sunflower, Rice and/or Corn Oil, Evaporated Cane Juice, Peach Juice, Mango Powder, Maltodextrin (from Corn), Safflower Oil, Tartaric Acid, Citric Acid, Paprika Extract. Contains Soybean Ingredients.

SIMPLY BOOTY (VEGAN): Corn Meal, Rice, Contains one of the following: Corn, Rice and/or Sunflower Oil, and Sea Salt.

Simply Booty is sugar free. The Veggie variety has less sugar than puffs. The Fruity Booty has about the same amount of sugar, but it comes from evaporated cane juice rather than HFCS.

All three are bite-sized, yummy, and dissolve quickly. I wish I'd found these when we were in the Puffs stage!

**I've been informed that Gerber Puffs are now sweetened with sugar, not HFCS. This must be new, as the can I bought MJ a few months ago definitely had HFCS. Anyone have a can to check for me?**

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the "Booty" products, too, but I'd be wary of giving "Veggie Booty" to a small child. It was recalled last year after some batches contained salmonella, resulting in dozens of sick kids. I'm sure the company is doing all it can to prevent a recurrence, but still...

Bird's Eye View Photography said...

Never heard of the booty products... but we did love the gerber puffs... we have moved on to bigger and most likely worse things for us!

Tabitha said...

Yep... I just checked my can of Gerber puffs and it says "Sugar". :o)

Never tried any of the booty products though... although they sound delish!

greenkiddo said...

i just bought fruity booty this week and gracie loves it! they were sold out of veggie booty but maybe next time!

Jana Burrow said...

Hey Renee! Christine gave me your two blog addresses...I don't have kids yet, but this is very informative. What a great idea! I just started blogging and I love it! www.jsburrow.blogspot.com