A chat with Little Freddie
The first baby food brand to publish its climate footprint!
Babies! Not so sustainable.
The planet is overpopulated, but these babies that keep popping up are so! damn! cute!
So our pals at Little Freddie found a solution to the unsustainable baby problem - sustainable baby food. Not just any sustainable baby food but CarbonCloud certified baby food.
‘’We make food you’d be proud to eat. We just happen to feed it to babies.‘’ - Little Freddie
Little Freddie are known for making organic, nutritional and delicious baby food. However they have also taken steps to ensure they are helping parents to understand and make more informed choices through the use of climate footprints verified by CarbonCloud.
CarbonCloud is founded and run by leading researchers on food and climate change, who dedicate their lives to providing us with accurate and comprehensible information about the climate impact of our choices.
Pretty cool to see brands taking charge of their production lines but the benefits of a brand knowing their carbon footprint goes way beyond gaining brownie points from consumers (and us). So, we asked Tara & Nicky at Little Freddie to tell us why they calculated their brand’s carbon footprint and the impact it’s had.
First of all and most importantly, before we talk sustainability and all things carbon foot-printing - Who is Freddie? And is he as little as our Co-founder Adam (5ft 6 1/2 )?
Freddie is founder Piers’ son and was the inspiration behind Little Freddie. When Freddie started weaning, Piers was frustrated with the current baby food options that were seriously lacking flavour and nutrition, so he set out to create the best tasting baby food on the market - and here we are! P.S. I’m sure Freddie is hoping he’ll grow beyond 5’6 (no offence Adam) - TP
Cuuute! What made you decide to publish a climate footprint with CarbonCloud?
I think you could easily flip this question on its head and argue why not? When we made the decision to approach CarbonCloud, I can admit we were nervous about what our footprints would be, and we couldn't predict how others would react. We soon came to the realisation that there isn't a 'good or bad' footprint - publishing your footprint demonstrates transparency and enables the consumer to make better and more informed decisions. You would have to be living under a rock to not be aware of the climate crisis we face, and as one third of GHG emissions come from food systems, we cannot afford to do nothing. In understanding our footprint, we can take the steps required to reduce it. It is always risky being the first in a category to do something different however, we now believe it's our responsibility to encourage other brands in our category to join us in quantifying their products' climate impact. - NS
Why isn't there a 'good or bad' footprint? Because it's a metric that not many food & drink brands have chosen to understand let alone publish. So if we have nothing to compare it to it becomes difficult to establish what is relatively high and what is low.
We do want to give you some context though so here's how Little Freddie product footprints compare to everyday items?
Tenderloin beef steak = 65 kg CO2e per kg
Unsalted butter = 17 kg CO2e per kg
Ice cream = 4.3 kg CO2e per kg
Little Freddie’s Creamy Blueberry Banana Greek Style Yoghurt = 2.5 kg CO2e per kg
Bottle of red wine = 1.5 kg CO2e per kg
1L of orange juice = 0.91 kg CO2e per kg
Banana = 0.53 kg CO2e per kg
Snog, Marry, Avoid - Strawberries, blueberries & oats, Grass-Fed Beef Lasagne, Simply Pink Lady Apples?
Depends who you are asking...I would have to marry strawberries, blueberries & oats, snog simply pink lady and avoid beef lasagne.. (sorry beef- if I was 25 years younger I would re-consider!) - TP
Totally on the same page with you here, beef lasagne pureed is not the one! Now we know which flavour you'd most likely make out with (question of the decade). What's next for Little Freddie?
Knowing our climate footprint has had a massive impact on how we operate as a business. From now on, all new products we launch will have a climate label. Even before they launch, the potential climate footprint is now being considered alongside nutrition and taste. For example, we've got some exciting (but top secret) new products launching soon and by keeping the climate footprint in mind, we have worked to ensure they are all low carbon, plant-based, recyclable packaging and made locally In the UK. - NS
When can we see labels in shops?
We want climate footprints on all our products – so far, we have done 5 with more being worked on. Our first printed labels have already launched this year on our Creamy Pink Lady Greek Style Yoghurt multipack and our Creamy Blueberry & Banana Greek Style Yoghurt with plenty more in the pipeline! I will add that if anyone wants to check what our most recent numbers are, they can always be found on our website. - NS
Carbon labelling is of course all very new and the numbers can mean a whole lot of nothing to most, how have you found your parents responding to it?
The response from our parents and retailers has been super positive. Although it’s a very new concept and some struggle to understand, they truly appreciate that we are being transparent as a business. Publishing our footprint shows that we care and are aware of our impact. This is why we need the bigger players to follow suit and publish their own labels so there is better comparison! - NS
Too right, Nicky!
Last but not least, do you have baby focus groups, to try the food?
We have a lovely community on Instagram and Whatsapp who we frequently send out to for reviews and of course we use our own network. Our Brand Manager has a baby on the way who will be immediately promoted to chief product taster! - TP