Amelia Freidline, Copy Editor Ladies and gentlemen, there’s a revolutionary new way to add the health benefits of fruits and vegetables to your busy lifestyle whether you’re in the car, at your desk or on the run — or even in the shower.
What is this miracle of modern science, you ask?
Answer: Slurping produce puree from a pouch.
Wait, what?
If you have young kids, have friends with kids or just like following trends in the baby food world, these squeeze bags of applesauce and other fruit and vegetables might be a familiar sight.
Pouch or bag packaging for baby and toddler foods has been on the rise for the past decade.
According to a recent piece in The Wall Street Journal, about 2% of new baby food products came in pouch-style packaging in 2007. In 2012, that had jumped to 40%.
Companies position these products as less messy than traditional jar-and-spoon baby food since the child can squeeze the puree into its mouth all by itself (or with a little help) and mom and dad can easily stow the empty pouch when out and about or throw it away.
For toddlers or older kids, the “squeezies,” as they’re called, are promoted as good lunchbox foods or snacks or meals on the go.
Apparently enough grownups were sneaking slurps from their kids’ smoothies that pouch-produce companies such as GoGo squeeZ, Happy Family and Buddy Fruits are developing products aimed specifically at adults.
Happy Family has coconut milk-based pouch foods for adults as well as superfood flavors, fruit and vegetable combos and a dessert-like Treat line.
GoGo squeeZ’s Fast Fruits packaging has a more grown-up look and offers a serving of fruit in flavors like apple peach passion fruit.
I tried to find both lines so I could sample their products and see what all the fuss was about, but among the three stores I visited I could only find GoGo squeeZ’s Applesauce on the Go pouches and Organic Mashups fruit and vegetable smoothies from Plum Organics, which makes food for kids from infancy through elementary school.
Maybe the retailers in my area haven’t caught on to this trend yet.
Since convenience was the main factor companies and consumers lauded in the Journal article I sampled Plum’s Blueberry Blitz smoothie while driving to work.
The roughly 3-ounce pouch was easy to hold in one hand while I sucked the fruit up, but I had to unscrew the big plastic child-safe cap before I drove anywhere.
It was good, although I couldn’t taste any of the carrot the ingredient list promised — instead it tasted like blueberry-flavored applesauce.
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