Dive Brief:
- Thistle, a food delivery startup, said it will be begin offering meal kits for parents who choose to make nutritious foods for their babies and toddlers at home, according to Tech Crunch. The meal kit consists of vacuum-sealed bags of portioned organic ingredients, flash-frozen to preserve flavor.
- Company co-owners Ashwin Cheriyan and Shiri Avnery said Thistle Baby was developed as a way to help parents provide both the health and taste benefits of homemade, organic and gluten-free baby food.
- The company says its prices work out to $2 per toddler or infant meal.
Dive Insight:
Numerous marketing surveys have predicted the U.S. meal kit delivery services market will generate upwards of $1.5 billion in sales this year, a number that keeps rising thanks to successful companies like Blue Apron.
Technomic Inc. reported consumers are interested in both the convenience and adventure promised by fresh meal kits delivered to their doors, which is why sales growth has outpaced all other aspects of food service in recent years.
Still, the thought that people will go gaga over meal kits for babies seems a bit far-fetched. Making baby food isn’t that difficult, and the meal kits that Thistle Baby delivers still require some preparation. Even at $2 per meal, some food analysts see it as a hard sell.
Consumers are apt to try new trends, so it’s not unimaginable that something like this could take off. According to Nielsen, the baby foods market generates more than $30 billion in sales. Nielsen also revealed 14% of consumers are buying groceries online, and another 30% are willing, so if these customers have little ones at home, they may want to give this a try.