FEALFI · Fun, Healthy and Safe Finger Food for Babies and Children

In 2010, 1 in 3 European children aged between 6-9 years old were overweight or obese – increasing from 1 in 4 ratio by 2008. Obese and overweight children are more likely to grow obese or overweight adults. It is estimated that obesity has about 7% impact in the national health budgets, across the EU. Childhood is an important time to instil a preference for healthy behaviours.We have developed the first vegetable-based finger food for babies and children. Made of organic vegetables cooked below 100 °C, with no additives, no added sugar and no allergens, our product is as good as homemade food. Vegetable-based finger foods for babies and young children have several advantages: i) helps developing healthy taste habits – parents often struggle with babies and children to eat their vegetables; ii) babies and children can grab it with their hands, which is fun, promotes autonomy and develops motor skills; iii) it replaces junk food and can be served as a meal or as a snack.We target parents who are often too busy to prepare a special meal for their babies or children. In general, these parents are rather urban and active searching for practicability and time saving. We expect to have a major impact for parents who have babies or children with special diet requirements due to health issues, such as overweight, diabetes or food allergies.The baby food market was valued at €43bn in 2017, from which €8.6bn correspond to prepared baby food. The organic baby food market represents about 15% of the total baby food market and is projected to grow with a 12 % CAGR forecasted in 2017-2025.We are aiming to start scale up of our technology in 2019, targeting €16m in revenues by 2022 with 23+ FTEs. In this Phase 1 project we will investigate the new target market segments & develop a strategy to scale.