Plum Good

It was Plato who once said necessity is the mother of invention. This is very often the case, especially with entrepreneurs who see a product or service missing from the marketplace and strive to fill that hole. For Gigi Lee Chang, this hole was in the baby food market. Chang knew she wanted to make baby food for her son, and sought out only the freshest organic ingredients to encourage a love of healthy eating and an adventurous palette. One problem she encountered when making her son’s food was that it was difficult to make fresh food, especially when she was traveling.

Conversations with other mothers made Chang realize that there weren’t many options in the baby food market, especially for healthy, organic foods. Chang left her job as the vice president of strategic planning for Euro RSCG and began researching the food industry. She started her company in 2005 and launched the Plum Organics brand in 2006. In addition to developing food that was both healthy and delicious, Chang spent quite a bit of time developing the packaging for her new brand. She knew parents weren’t used to shopping in the frozen section for their baby’s food, so she wanted to catch shoppers’s eyes as they walked through the frozen food section.

More recently, Plum Organics has launched a selection of organic baby and toddler foods packaged in environmentally friendly BPA-free pouches rather than in traditional glass jars or plastic tubs. These pouches can be squeezed into a bowl or directly onto a spoon, or babies can just suck the food right out of the pouch, making it a convenient choice anywhere. The company also launched a line of organic puffs and healthy toddler snacks made from organic fruits and vegetables, offering even more variety for parents who want to feed their children healthy, organic food but who don’t have the time to make it themselves.