Disclaimer: This article doesn’t constitute medical advice and is just the opinion of the writer(s). We recommend that parents speak with their pediatrician about the best baby food options.
Yumi is an organic subscription food service with a unique twist: it’s targeted to babies (well, moreso to their parents). The brand suggests that their products are healthier than regular baby food because they’re whole-foods based and free of harmful additives.
But is Yumi really healthier than regular baby food or are these just marketing claims? What ingredients do their meals contain? Are their containers toxic? And how do parents rate and describe Yumi?
In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Yumi Meals and Yumi Vitamins to give our take on whether or not they're healthy.
We'll also explain if the containers they use are a health risk, which is an important consideration because babies are at higher risk from chemicals leaching into food.
We'll feature Yumi customer reviews and compare the ingredients in Yumi to other popular baby food brands to give our healthiest pick.
Are Yumi Meals Healthy?
Yumi’s meal subscriptions come in a variety of different “Stages” based on the baby’s age.
The simplest meals, called "Stage 1," are single-ingredient purees of nutritious foods like blueberry and adzuki bean. The pureed format can be easier for babies to eat than solid foods.
However, at the time of updating this article, Yumi appears to have totally updated their website and still mentions the food stages but it's unclear if they're available for purchase.
The ingredients in Yumi's Strawberry & Rhubarb Toddler bar, which is currently their most popular product, are shown below:
The majority of ingredients in this bar are organic whole foods, and there are no unhealthy additives. The large number of different plant foods is great for a child's health and development.
A medical review published in the Journal of Nutrition found that increased dietary diversity in children led to improved nutritional status and increased height.
Are Yumi's Containers Unsafe?
Yumi's meals are packaged in plastic containers, which the brand claims are bisphenol A (BPA) and bisphenol S (BPS)-free.
As we detailed in our extensive BPA review article, we don't believe that these designations are healthier because medical studies have shown that BPA alternative plastics are often just as toxic and hormone-disrupting as BPA.
The entire class of chemicals used to make plastic soft (called plasticizers) is estrogenic and hormone-disrupting, and the risk of exposure to these chemicals is especially high for babies based on medical research, because their body has limited capacity to clear environmental toxins.
We understand that there are reasons to make baby products plastic (like the safety risk of dropping a glass product), but we would like to see Yumi explain exactly what type of plastic they use for their bottles and the safety research backing that choice.
We’re not suggesting that Yumi food containers are necessarily unsafe, but we do recommend that parents try to limit plastic exposure as much as possible during the early years of their child’s development.
Feeding your child organic fruit and vegetable purees from a non-toxic container like ceramic or glass may be a healthier option than Yumi.
Real People Try Yumi
A YouTube creator named Tiffany Durrah reviewed Yumi baby food including an unboxing, a close-up of some of the meals and a taste test with her baby:
A TikTok user named Olena Kryvoruchko shares a clever way to reuse leftovers from Yumi meals for a snack for your baby:
@lenadenisenko BABY FOOD LEFTOVERS? Try this👉🏻 #babyfood #babyfoodleftover #leftoverschallenge #leftoverhack #lifehacks #yumi #yumibabyfood #yumifood ♬ original sound - Olena Kryvoruchko
Yumi vs. Regular Baby Food
The ingredients in popular infant formula brand Similac are shown above.
As you can see, the ingredients list is vastly more complex than Yumi. While it is free of any questionable additives like preservatives, it's certainly more "processed" than Yumi. Does a baby really need high oleic safflower oil in their diet? Would this have been in a baby's diet before industrialization?
We consider Yumi to be healthier than Similac and similar commercial baby food products, but only a pediatrician can determine what's right for any individual child.
It's worth noting that baby food brands like Gerber sell similar products to Yumi: fruit and vegetable purees, without any harmful additives, packaged in plastic.
Yumi Vitamins Review
Yumi sells a line of gummy vitamins based on age.
The Toddler vitamins are whole foods based, which we believe is a safe and healthy choice for young children.
The vitamins contain nutritious ingredients like black currant and broccoli, and provide a significant amount of vitamins and minerals based on their Supplement Facts label.
Natural flavor is the only questionable additive ingredient.
A 2004 medical review reported toxicity concerns regarding some natural flavoring agents and their metabolites.
As we discussed in our vitamins for teens article, we haven't come across much clinical research suggesting that vitamin supplementation is necessary in children who are already eating a healthy diet.
If a child has a nutritional deficiency based on bloodwork results, then vitamin supplementation to fix that deficiency may be recommended, but taking children's multivitamins may be a waste of money.
Overall, we consider Yumi Vitamins to be healthier than regular multivitamins that use synthetic vitamin blends, but we're not sure that most children need vitamin supplements.
Pros and Cons of Yumi
Here are the pros and cons of Yumi in our opinion:
Pros:
- Whole food ingredients
- Healthier than commercial alternatives
- Relatively affordable
- Good online reviews from parents
- Whole food based vitamins
Cons:
- Packaged in plastic
- Vitamins contain natural flavoring agents
- Unclear if meal "stages" and vitamins are still available for sale
