FEBRUARY 2007: AROUND THE STATE
FOOD
Building business on the best for baby
PORTLAND — Gerber baby, eat your strained-carrot heart
out. The latest health food wave has reached the youngest
Oregon consumers with the introduction of Nice Cubes, a new
brand of frozen organic baby food, the first of its kind
developed locally.
Nice Cubes is part of the booming nationwide organic baby food
market. According to marketing research firm A.C. Nielsen Co.,
this segment of the organic food market grew 18% between 2004
and 2005, bringing in $100 million in 2005.
“Our approach is to create a product that’s as
fresh as homemade,” says company founder and Portland mom
Katie McNamara, who began work on her product a year ago after
winning the American Food Fight competition put on by Oregon
State University’s Food Innovation Center. Each
four-ounce Nice Cubes serving, packaged in a square tray,
contain grains, fruits and vegetables grown locally. Trays are
stacked three high to form cubes and are sold at New Seasons
and Whole Foods as well as at the Food Front market co-op.
Besides introducing tots to such flavors as
“bandango” and “gentle lentils,” Nice
Cubes purees are jam-packed with vitamins, according to
McNamara. She explains that since the cubes are frozen, they
lack the added preservatives necessary for shelf food.
“We’re supplying moms with the fresh food
they want for their babies,” she says. At $4.95 a box,
Nice Cubes is aimed at the moms who can afford to be
discriminating.
But to McNamara, the growing legions of the stroller set in
that demographic are enough to build a business on. Now she
just hopes those babies will give Nice Cubes two spoons up.
— Colleen
Moran
Have an opinion?
E-mail feedback@oregonbusiness.com
