What Is a Baby Food Tray?

A baby food tray is a device used to separate and store baby food in single serving sizes. Resembling an ice cube tray, the common baby food tray is a plastic container with several molded pockets used to hold the baby food. It is common for a baby food tray to have a lid that can be snapped into position to help keep the baby food fresh. The trays can be used to place entire meals in the storage wells or to store and freeze several meals of a common food type, allowing one serving to be removed from the tray when needed while the others remain frozen or refrigerated.

Baby food jars often contain more food than a small child will eat at a single feeding. It is for this reason that the baby food tray was designed. Now, baby food can be removed from the original jar and placed into individual serving portions within the baby food tray. Moreover, dried baby food can be mixed and stored in the tray until feeding time. This allows the food to be made in advance and carried with the rest of the baby's supplies until needed. Parents can also custom mix baby food blends in the tray pockets to provide a child with a perfectly portioned supply of baby food created especially for him or her.

The single-serving portion pouches or wells in the baby food tray are also well-suited for freezing and storing breast milk. With a tray full of freshly frozen breast milk, the caregiver need only remove one square of milk from the tray and defrost the serving at feeding time. The remaining milk is undisturbed and safely stored in the sealed baby food tray. The tight-fitting cover makes it possible to collect and store several days' worth of breast milk in advance, while still maintaining its freshness for future use.

Most baby food tray designs are intended to be used in a stack, so the trays are made to interlock in a stack to fit snugly within a freezer when not being used. Most of the trays are manufactured using food-safe plastic. This means that the trays contain no polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Bisphenol-A (BPA), or plasticizer materials. Stackable, spill-proof trays that offer a single serving size as well as a design that is able to be repeatably frozen and defrosted without fail are a handy food storage option for the caregiver on the go.