The Petit Gems Story.....

It was about two years ago when sat round the dinner table at my in-laws house, my wife said “if only you could buy Halal baby food”. We were discussing the eating habits of my lovely little daughter. Mashaallah she had just started weaning.

That's how the story began, when we embarked on this adventure to produce Petit Gems Halal baby food. It was not an easy thing to get involved in. I found to my surprise, that this wasn't a new idea. So many Muslim parents had enquired about Halal baby food. However nobody had been able to fill this gap in the Halal market. I also came across an article from a Sure Start Dietician, Sarah Jean-Marie, she had produced a report which highlighted that Muslim babies in particular were suffering from a poor diet, “due to a lack of Halal baby foods”.

What did she mean?. Well basically babies are born with an iron stock which only last for 6 months. Iron is a vital nutrient for babies and iron deficiency is the most common nutritional problem amongst babies. Now the trend has been for Muslim mothers to feed their babies egg custard and fruit desserts, which I think most of us grew up eating. However without the Iron (from meat) and protein (from chicken), Muslim babies were not getting a balanced diet during the most important stage of their development.

We enlisted the help of nutritionists, food development agencies and also experts in Halal food production. We also contacted the Halal Monitoring Committee (HMC) to help us source meat so that we could produce a baby food which was Halal in every aspect.

There was no point doing this, unless we could guarantee a genuine Halal product. Our whole production line had to be Halal, even the cleaning solutions used on the machinery are Halal. We only use unstunned Halal meat from HMC slaughterhouses.

Independent tasting sessions conducted by the FDA found that, Subhanallah, Petit Gems was considered tastier than other Halal baby foods, and on par (if not better) than other mainstream non-halal brands.

Mashaallah in June 2006, in Paris, Petit Gems was launched. Within a year Petit Gems was available in all the major supermarkets across France. We have the number one selling Halal baby food in France.

Following on from this, on 7 July 2007 we launched Petit Gems in 60 Asda stores across the UK, where it has been a huge success. Our aim has always been to provide a baby food which doesn't compromise your faith or your baby’s health.

My daughter didn't get the chance to eat Petit Gems, but I hope Inshaallah that because of her, other babies will be more fortunate.

By Ismail Pirbhai at GEM Foods. A Muslim family run company which specialises in Halal food production and distribution.

Contact Information

Consumers & Media

Gem Foods 
Global Enterprise Management Limited.
434a Foleshill Road
Coventry, CV6 5JX 
+44 (0)2476 668 7859.

Sales Info
If you are looking to distribute Petit Gems products or sell them in your store, please send an email to our Sales Department.  Please tell us your store name, key contact person, and location.