Citing data from UNICEF 2024 Child Nutrition Report, Irvin Tan, founder and CEO of HaruPlate, said that child food poverty is defined as the inability to access and consume a nutritious and diverse diet in early childhood.
Importantly, this problem tends to persist through adolescence and adulthood.
“Globally, 440m children under the age of five suffer from food poverty, resulting in increasing incidence of overweight, stunting, and wasting. Child malnutrition exacts an estimated USD3.5tn per year, including healthcare costs, productivity losses, and reduced economic potential due to impaired cognitive development.
“This is not a problem only in low-income economies, but also among the world’s growing middle- and high-income economies. For instance, in countries like China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea, there has been a steady increase in overweight prevalence (between five and 19 years old),” Tan shared during his presentation at Growth Asia Summit 2024.
He reiterated that while middle- and high-income consumers may have greater spending power, child food poverty is still a pervasive issue that requires “better solutions”.
Observing a gap in products for early and middle childhood, HaruPlate aims to capture the opportunity and create products that are easy to use, can be integrated into people’s lifestyles, readily available, and align with the target audience’s willingness to spend.
The firm adopts a user-centric approach for its product development, focusing on the pain points of parents, which include juggling time, lack of nutrition knowledge, and picky eaters.
“After our launch, we spoke to our customers and realised that sometimes, it becomes a vicious cycle when the mom gets stressed out [about food rejection] at meal times, and the stress passes on to the kid.
“We also found out that the key areas parents are prioritising include immunity, cognitive and physical growth, gut health, and mental wellness.”
Notably, there are differences in parents’ perception when it comes to snacks and treats, which has influenced the way HaruPlate approaches product development.
“Parents think of snacks in a functional way, meaning that snacks are packed as part of their daily diet for school-age children. On the other hand, treats like ice cream and chocolate are often given as a form of reward or encouragement — for example, after tuition.”
In addition, Tan learned that ease of access is crucial to extending the reach of products.
“We tried going to preschools at first, but it was unfruitful, so we started selling directly to consumers online. Within a year, we managed to get our products into supermarkets, and some specialty grocers and retailers. We expanded to Malaysia last year, and hopefully we can continue to build on that.”
Upgrading in progress
Currently, HaruPlate’s line-up comprises a range of cooking sauces, fruit jams, and ice creams.
Named Fundaes, the ice creams are made from fresh fruits and vegetables, contain prebiotic and probiotic fibres, and come in four flavours. As they are not formulated with refined sugar and artificial preservatives, they are suitable for children above 12 months.
Despite the popularity of the ice creams — with a record of selling 300 cups in two days — the firm continued to work on improving product stability in terms of melting time, as well as texture and taste.
At the same time, the company has been doubling down on the reformulation of its cooking sauces to enhance textural consistency and product homogeneity.
“We are trying to better control the cooking time for tomatoes to improve the quality of our sauce. We also want to increase fibre content to help raise the children’s daily fibre intake.
“Our prior exposure to Citrus Fiber Peak (a fibre ingredient made from sustainably sourced citrus peels) led to the hypothesis that it could be a potential ingredient. Over the last two to three months, we have been applying it in different amounts and different sauces.”
Tan added that the new formulation is “about 90%” completed, and the reformulated range can be expected to be launched within the next few months.
Smart cookie
A new product called “The Smart Cookie” is on the horizon, as HaruPlate seeks to meet the needs of parents for cleaner and more nutritious snacks for school.
Targeted at supporting cognitive function, focus and immunity, the chocolate cookie is said to contain no sugar and is high in fibre.
“The product needs to be shelf-stable so that the kids can eat it even at a later time of the day. We also wanted it to be mess-resistant and bite-sized because one of the biggest pain points of parents is the crumbs on clothes, floor, etc. from snacks.
“We have tested the response at three trade shows and had 82% acceptance rate. We are working on the next iteration that will be fortified with a blend of iron and B vitamins, and are looking to introduce it in October,” Tan shared.
