Organic Meat Baby Food & Bacteria
Just as trends in marketing food to adults have leaned toward organic products for enhanced nutrition and safety, interest in organic foods for babies has affected the production of commercial baby foods, which now include many organic products. However, many young families prefer to prepare baby's food at home from organic ingredients, and keeping that food safe from bacterial contamination is of paramount importance.
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Organic Meat
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Organic foods--vegetables, fruit, grains and meat--are available in many supermarkets, clearly labeled and usually somewhat more expensive than conventionally produced food. In the case of plant foods, the organic label indicates that the food was grown without the use of commercial pesticides and fertilizers. In the case of organic meats, the label indicates that the animal was not fed meat byproducts or non-organic grains. Beef must be grass-fed, not grain-fed, and all animals must be hormone- and antibiotic-free.
Cooking Meat
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Meat for babies may be prepared by microwaving, though roasting or braising in liquid are recommended. These methods may be used for beef, pork, chicken, even venison or other game.
The liquid used to braise meat may be water, broth, formula or breast milk, even fruit juice such as organic apple juice. Baby food recipes always recommend keeping baby food free of salt, but some encourage the use of herbs and other seasonings including garlic in moderation.
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Additional Preparation
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Some liquids could be too strongly flavored for very new meat-eaters, so a little water may be added to the processor or blender when pureeing the cooked meat. Feeding an infant meat, even smooth meat puree, is a decision most doctors and mothers prefer to make for themselves, but when a child is old enough to handle a coarser mixture, meat may be ground or chopped.
Refrigeration
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All cooked food for babies must be refrigerated as soon as possible. One hour of cooling is ideal; two hours is maximum. Storage in the refrigerator should not exceed 48 hours. If food will not be frozen, it must be consumed or discarded after two days.
Freezing Baby Food
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The best way to store and preserve homemade baby food is by freezing, and the most convenient method is the use of ice cube trays to freeze baby-size portions of prepared food. Plastic ice cube trays, thoroughly washed and dried, are filled with pureed or chopped meat, and frozen covered with plastic wrap until solid. Then the cubes can be transferred to plastic freezer bags, labeled with the type of meat and the date, and returned to the freezer to use within 1 month. Other types of organic baby foods may be frozen in exactly the same way for longer periods of time, up to two months, without loss of nutrition or safety.
Important Cautions
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Containers used for storage of baby food in the refrigerator can be any convenient plastic or glass product with a tight-fitting lid. Containers used for freezing must be approved for use in the freezer; thus the ice cube tray is perfect without question. Even glass jars and plastic dishes are not safe enough unless labeled for freezer use. Do not feed a baby from a storage container of any kind, not even from a commercial baby food jar, and then return the container to the refrigerator. The spoon used for feeding will have introduced bacteria into the food.
Because meat is somewhat more susceptible to contamination than other foods, careful handling of cooked meat must begin immediately after cooking.
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References
- Photo Credit funny eating baby girl image by Aleksey Kondratyuk from Fotolia.com
