October 2007
New Company Packs a ‘Full Tank’
of Nutrition into Foods Kids Love
When our firstborn, Rachel, tasted her first vegetable, it was love at first bite. And as she toddled through the next few years, I proudly watched as she gobbled almost every fruit or veggie offered to her. Her father and I beamed with self-congratulatory joy, for certainly it was our wonderful parenting and culinary prowess that made our 3-year-old such a healthy eater.
Enter child number two. As she approached 6 months, Chloe started on what we hoped would be a lifelong love affair with all things green, colorful and healthy. Imagine our deflated parental hopes when almost every vegetable or fruit we offered her was met with a visceral shiver, a yucky face and immediate expulsion. My husband and I resorted to making airplane noises with flying spoons, we pleaded, we cajoled, we bargained. We learned the bitter taste of failure.
A similar dilemma confronted Seattle’s Full Tank foods co-founders John and Whitney Anderson when their toddler, Mason, turned 2. Much to their dismay, Mason changed from veggie lover to “picky eater,” or, what taste researchers call a “supertaster.” (According to research at Tufts University, about 25 percent of the population are categorized as “nontasters,” who don’t register some flavors, such as sour and bitter. The other 50 percent who are “medium tasters” and, to a greater extent, the 25 percent who are “supertasters” have a heightened sensitivity to foods that are bitter or sour, probably due to a variation in genes that affect taste receptors.)
As self-described foodies, and with John’s background in bioengineering and Whitney’s expertise as a practicing pediatrician, the Andersons started to experiment with creatively “hiding” vegetables in Mason’s favorite foods. They creamed carrots into red sauce, and added sweet potatoes to his macaroni and cheese. The couple shared their recipes and ideas with other parents of “vegetably challenged” kids, which ultimately led to the development of Full Tank foods, healthy and kid friendly organic entrées and baby foods that hit store shelves in May 2007.
I asked John Anderson about the science and philosophy behind the Full Tank. “The concepts are straightforward,” he explains. “Humans don’t like [bitter or acidic] tastes because most toxins in nature are bitter and many vegetables contain bitter compounds. Researchers have traced this to genetics.” Anderson also points out that, of course, “behavioral issues can impact [eating behavior] as well,” which explains why, as we age, we may overcome our natural aversion to bitter or sour flavors.
So how does Full Tank create foods that are nutritious and delicious to the pickiest of supertasters? “Our process allows us to reduce or eliminate the bitter taste of vegetables,” explains Anderson. “For example, oxalic acid in spinach can be removed by adding calcium.” Another key strategy is disguising vegetables in their Secret Agent pasta entrées. “We…visually hide the vegetables because some kids are freaked out by the sight of anything orange and green. By hiding vegetables in foods kids love, we give them a full serving of veggies and they don’t even know it. Both of our Secret Agent entrées are 30 percent vegetable material by weight.”
But, what about nutritional strategies that promote repeated exposure to fruits and vegetables rather than hiding or disguising them?
“Studies have shown that it can take up to 15 direct exposures – meaning chewing and swallowing – for a child to accept and develop a liking for a particular vegetable or fruit,” says Natalie Jacobson, registered dietitian and mom of 5-year-old supertaster Casey.
“While this strategy is favored by some parents and nutritionists, it requires a lot of time and patience. That being said, I also believe that when a child eats foods in which the vegetables are hidden or disguised, the child does subconsciously taste that vegetable and their palate is still being trained to accept the flavor,” she adds.
Jacobsen goes on to say that “as parents, you can do everything ‘right’ when it comes to instilling healthy eating habits in your child, and still end up with a child who refuses to eat his veggies. Parents need to be creative and flexible. The goal of the parent should be long-term health for their child, and I support any strategy that gets vegetables and fruits into a child’s daily diet.”
Full Tank hopes to fill a much-needed niche in the retail market place, with its products carried at Whole Foods, Metropolitan Market and other upscale stores, and also to find a place in school lunch programs. With recipe development by local chef and restaurateur Tom Douglas, John Anderson says the school lunch program will launch this fall. “We expect a couple of dozen private schools, plus one or two public districts to be on the list.”
While Anderson prefers to keep mum about which schools are slated to launch until the company makes an official announcement, he describes the challenges of marketing a new product line to private and public schools. Cost effectiveness and selling to outside food service providers can be obstacles, says Anderson. “Furthermore, public schools are part of the USDA Child Nutrition Program, which requires that we register our items so the schools know how our products fit into their overall nutrition profiles. The good part is that our macaroni and cheese meets all the Child Nutrition Program’s requirement in a single entrée.”
I met with Nancy Moore, kitchen manager of Olympic View Elementary, to hear her perspective on school nutrition and the concept of Full Tank’s product line.
“The school lunchroom has changed over the years, and I think [Seattle] elementary schools are doing a good job,” Moore says, as she escorts me to the school’s walk-in refrigerator. Pointing to shelves full of purple plums, apples and salad bar selections, Moore continues: “When I make my weekly order, I make sure to include whole fruits and fresh vegetables.”
When asked about school district policy, Moore replies: “Each child must select one entrée and at least one side dish, but they’re not required specifically to select a fruit or vegetable. This means a child can walk away from the lunch line with just a slice of pizza and a carton of milk. So my challenge,” says Moore, “is to get the kids to want to take a fruit or vegetable, which doesn’t always happen. I think that an entrée that already contains a full serving of vegetables is a great solution.” But, Moore adds, “I must emphasize that I also believe healthy eating begins early on, at home.”
So, too, believes Anderson, and he describes Full Tank’s commitment of reaching out to our community: “Part of our mission is to reach kids at all economic levels. We do this through our school lunch program and our food and cash donations to help kids throughout Washington. We recently donated a palette of entrées and baby food to Northwest Harvest.”
Full Tank’s commitment to providing healthier, kid-friendly foods both commercially and through their community outreach efforts illustrates a position expressed by parents, nutrition educators, and health care providers alike: In order to encourage our children toward a life long habit of healthy eating, everyone needs to be on board.
For more information on Full Tank, including online ordering and retail locations, call 1-800-556-8445 or visit www.fulltankfoods.com.
Riki Mafune is a local freelance writer, musician and mother of two. She has 10 years experience as a public health educator in nutrition studies.
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