- Professional chef supervised toddler food that is low in salt, but still delicious for adults.
- Quickly frozen home-made meals, each pack contains enough food for adults and children to share.
- Home delivery customized for each family, including allergies and nutritional balance
homeal" is a service that provides frozen infant meals customised for each family. The delicious food is prepared by professional chefs and nutritionists and delivered ready to eat in the microwave.
The service was awarded a prize for excellence in the "BabyTech® Award Japan 2020 Breastfeeding and Feeding Category". The BabyTech.jp editorial team caught up with Sho Onimi, CEO of homeal, to find out more about the service, how it was developed and what the future holds.
We spoke with...
Sho Onikai, CEO, homeal K.K.
Professional "toddler food" that adults can eat too
Editor: Thank you very much for your time today. Could you give us an overview of homeal and its features?
Onimi : homeal is a toddler food delivery service based on the concept of "parents and children eating together". There are two main features. The first is that parents and children can eat together. The other is that we use a diagnostic function to deliver a customized menu for each family.
"The term 'toddler food' may be unfamiliar to you, but it generally refers to food for children between the ages of one and six. The period between one and one and a half years of age, when children finish milk and baby food, is known as the 'transition period'. This is followed by the "early and late toddler food" period, when children gradually develop their teeth and begin to eat foods with a chewy texture. All of our products have been created by a team of professional chefs and nutritionists.
One of the characteristics of working with a professional chef is that homeal is a toddler food, so salt and additives need to be reduced. However, if you simply reduce the salt content, the food will taste bland and unappetising. This is why we use professional techniques, such as homemade fon de veau (broth made from veal meat and bones) and chicken bouillon (broth made from chicken stock), which are similar to the broth used in Japanese cuisine. The result is a dish that is full of flavour without relying on salt.
There are now around 40 dishes on the menu, with the likes of "Keema Curry with Hidden Vegetables" and "Fricassee with Porcini and Young Chicken" being particularly popular. The meatballs with liver are also popular, as they are made by hand and are fluffy and can be eaten by children who have not yet developed their teeth. These chef-created toddler meals are flash frozen to ensure that they are freshly prepared and ready to eat.
