Cleanliness is extremely important when it comes to preparing food for babies. Adults might be able to withstand the bacteria of week-long leftovers but your baby will not. Their immune system is only just developing, so you need to take extra care and attention in the kitchen. A bout of food poisoning could make them very ill.

Below are my guidelines for healthy food preparation and how to freeze and defrost your homemade baby food recipes!

Guidelines when preparing homemade baby food

• Always wash your hands before you start.
• Always make sure your cooking surfaces, utensils, and storage containers are clean before preparation begins.
• Wash vegetables and fruit with cold, running water.
• Remove any peel, seeds or stems before cooking, then cook fruits (such as sliced apples and plums) and vegetables (such as sweet potatoes and peas) until they are soft enough to mash.
• Try to use separate cutting boards, one for meat, one for fish and another for fruits, vegetables and bread.
• Boil or steam your fruit and vegetables. When boiling, use the smallest amount of water possible to retain vitamins.
• Food should be refrigerated within 2 hours of completion of cooking and should reach less then 10 degrees after a further 30 minutes.

Freezing, defrosting and reheating

• If you are freezing your baby’s food, our Weaning Pots offer the perfect solution allowing you to batch cook and freeze the correct portion for your baby. 
• If you are using ice-cube trays, make sure they are BPA free and be extremely careful to cover them as if they are uncovered in the freezer it leaves them open to contamination from the other products being stored. Please note that cling film is not BPA free.
• Always label and date food so you know what it is and when it needs to be discarded. Mummy Cooks advise placing your Weaning Pots in a zip lock bag and labelling the bag.
• Reheat food until it is piping hot (71 degrees), then allow to cool before serving to your baby. Check the temperature by using our ThermoSpoon
• Always be very careful with rice. If left for several hours at room temperature, cooked rice can cause food poisoning and further cooking or reheating will not destroy the bacteria. Either keep rice hot (at or above 63°C) or refrigerate or freeze. If using baby rice, always make small amounts fresh each time.
• Do not reheat foods more then once and never refreeze uneaten food.

3 Methods of defrosting

1. In the cooking process: The frozen food is unwrapped and cooked while frozen. It should be cooked for a relatively longer time than fresh or thawed food. This method is ideal for frozen vegetables, small cuts of meat, chicken and fish. 

2. In the fridge overnight: This is the preferred method as you can then heat the exact amount of food required the next day with little wastage.

3. On the defrost programme on the microwave: Making sure to heat through after defrosting. The food should be piping hot.  

From our range of Weaning Pots, you can choose from 10 different sizes to suit each stage of development.