Ella's Products + Ingredients FAQS

Take a peek at the Dietary requirement filter on Ella's Shop to discover which yummy products are suitable for your little one's diet.

The Food Information Regulation states that all allergens in a product should be highlighted in the ingredients declaration. We highlight any allergens in the product in bold text in the ingredients list on the back of our packaging.

Underneath the ingredients list we will state any ‘may contains’ information for products which do not contain the allergen ingredients but are made in a factory that handles it. If the product does not have an allergen highlighted and there is no ‘may contains’ warning then the product does not contain that specific allergen.

We use organic palm oil in 3 of our snacks*. The palm oil we use is all sourced from Colombia and is certified as a segregated source by the Rountable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

We promised to remove palm oil from our Baby Biscuits by 2021. However, unfortunately this got delayed due to lack of sunflower oil around the world, impacted by the war in Ukraine. We are still committed to getting there and now supply is improving, we are aiming to be palm oil free by 2024.

Find out more about our commitment to sourcing ethical + sustainable ingredients here.

* Vanilla + Banana Baby Biscuits, Apple + Ginger Baby Biscuits and Parsnip + Poppy Seed Savoury Biccies

All of our baby food products are certified by Organic Farmers and Growers to be organic + use organic ingredients that are certified to the same standard. Organic farming + food production means tip-top environmental practices, lots of biodiversity and careful use of natural resources like land and water, as well as the highest animal welfare standards.

We don't add refined sugar to our food; the taste comes from organic fruit, vegetables or a natural sweetener like organic honey, agave or malt extract.

The sugars in our products are only naturally occurring, just like you would find in a whole piece of fruit. All our food adheres to the strict Baby Food Regulations and we make sure we go above + beyond these to prioritise taste + nutrition for little ones.

We always aim to keep our total sugars levels as low as possible, and we aim to be lowest in class for sugars, while keeping a balance of all other nutrients.

We recommend that little ones eat a varied and balanced diet that doesn't just focus on sugar content but on offering a wide range of healthy, tasty foods.

At Ella’s Kitchen, we never add any salt to our products.

The salt present in our products is calculated from the sodium that naturally occurs in the ingredients. Food Labelling Legislation now requires us to label salt in our nutritional tables and no longer use sodium.

We take care to minimise the total salt in our products from every source and aim to balance great nutrition with the yummy taste that you’d expect from Ella’s Kitchen.

At Ella’s Kitchen we are committed to creating yummy nutritious food that is good for tiny tummies.

To make sure our pouches are tasty and have a long shelf life, we use a special cooking process that makes sure the product is completely safe whilst still maintaining as many nutrients as possible and the pouches are then sealed air-tight.

We use strong packaging which protects the food, makes sure it tastes reeeally fresh + is handy for families on the go.

The Green One recyclable pouch:

In May 2023 we launched our first fully recyclable pouch: The Green One. Made from mono-material (which is a fancy way of saying it's made of just one material) this new pouch can be popped straight into your recycling bin at home, just remember to keep the cap on!

Pouches + snack wrappers:

Whilst the Green One is the first of our pouches that can be recycled at kerbside, the rest of our pouches + snacks wrappers are not currently accepted for recycling by local councils in the UK but can now be taken to participating supermarket drop off points. To find your nearest store through the Recycle Now website, click here.

We're on the journey to move our entire pasteurised range (that's all our fruit and fruit + veggie combo pouches) to recyclable packaging over the course of 2023-2024. Meaning that by the end of 2024, nearly 75% of all our pouches will now be fully recyclable at kerbside in the UK, which will be a huge milestone! We know how important it is to do our bit to protect the planet for future generations. That's why we're committed to moving to fully recyclable packaging as quickly as possible and are working really hard to find recyclable solutions for the rest of our range.

Card, Pots + Trays:

All our card as well as our plastic pots + trays are fully recyclable and widely collected at kerbside by local councils across the UK.

To find out more about how we are working to improve the sustainability of our packaging, click here.

Our pouches are made from layers of food-safe plastic sandwiched together - and most of them have a layer of aluminium too. The aluminium never comes into direct contact with the food but helps to keep the yummy food inside really tasty and safe for tiny tummies.

All the cardboard packaging used for our boxes is 100% recyclable and is made from a mix of FSC-certified and recycled sources. We use vegetable inks and water-based coatings to print the boxes and our printing plates are also all chemical free.

The plastic trays used for our frozen food is widely recycled and produced with a minimum of 50% recycled content.

Yes, you can read our statement on Modern Slavery here.

Fruits and vegetables have super healthy benefits and provide a range of vitamins and minerals as well as being bright and colourful. They’re all fine to introduce to your little one from the start of weaning.

Some babies may occasionally develop a skin reaction, like a rash, when foods like citrus fruits, berries, tomatoes, aubergine or kiwi come into contact with the skin. This isn’t necessarily an allergy and might reduce with time but it’s always best to stop offering the food if this skin reaction develops and chat with your health visitor or doctor for advice. You can often reintroduce these foods gradually but always seek medical advice first.

When introducing new foods, particularly allergens like gluten, nuts or egg, always watch out for any reactions.

At Ella’s Kitchen, we are committed to making yummy delicious products using only the best organic ingredients we can find. We care passionately about the health and welfare of the animals that provide the meat, dairy and eggs for our products. We are committed sourcing organic meat, dairy and eggs of high animal welfare standards only from the UK and the EU. We believe organic livestock farming provides the highest available certifiable standards of farm animal welfare. All the meat, dairy and eggs we use in our baby food range is independently audited and certified by organic control bodies to EU Organic standards. While we are committed to sourcing certified organic, there are other certifications that we would consider acceptable, if organic is not available or we think the system and the suppliers meet the same high standards for people, animals and the environment as organic.

At Ella’s Kitchen we believe that chicken and hens should be allowed to roam freely and hence why we do not buy chicken or eggs that have been kept in cages.

Through our commitment to Animal Welfare, Ella’s Kitchen will ensure that:

• We have full traceability of the ingredients in our supply chains
• We are meeting our consumers’ expectations
• We are using the best quality ingredients
• Working to reduce our environmental impact through delivering Our BIG Pledge to Little People and our Science Based Targets which have been externally verified by the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi)
• We are reducing our environmental impact

Our animal welfare policy and livestock-production specifications are based on the Farm Animal Welfare Committee’s (www.defra.gov.uk/fawc/) Five Freedoms that state that animals should have:

• Freedom from Hunger and Thirst – by providing ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour.
• Freedom from Discomfort – by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.
• Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease – by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.
• Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour – by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind.
• Freedom from Fear and Distress – by ensuring conditions and treatment, which avoid mental suffering.
  

Higher animal welfare farming systems enable species-specific behavioural needs, promote good animal welfare management and allow health management based on disease prevention. (in particular, not allowing the routine or pre-emptive use of antibiotics. Medicines can only be used when necessary to treat individual cases of disease).

We have an ongoing partnership with the animal welfare organisation Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) to achieve and maintain consistent higher animal welfare standards as our business grows. Ella’s Kitchen have won a Good Chicken Award (2016) and Good Egg Award (2017), Good Pig Award (2018) and Cage Free Award (2019) from CIWF and we encourage our suppliers to apply for Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards in the future, as we work with them to continuously improve and take a leadership role in the field of animal welfare.

If you have any questions regarding livestock production specifications, please contact our customer care team here.