Learn the secrets to storing and freezing homemade baby food for ultimate freshness—AND the best baby food storage containers to use to ensure that you never waste what you make!
Baby Food Storage
Going through the effort to make homemade baby food really only works if you have a good plan for how to store the food to ensure that it stays fresh and that baby has plenty of opportunities to enjoy it. After making a LOT of baby food for my third kiddo to send with him to daycare, I got into a good routine of quickly making and storing baby food—both in the fridge and freezer. Here’s how you can do it too.
You can find my favorite baby food recipes, tips for starting solids, and baby-led weaning advice to help, too.
Table of Contents
Your toddler won’t eat? Help is here!
Sign up for our email updates to get tips and ideas sent to your inbox.
Best Baby Food Storage Containers
Having baby food storage containers on hand and ready to go can make preserving your baby food a lot simpler. These are my four favorite options (that last, so you can use them to store general leftovers after you’re in the baby food phase).1. Wean Green Baby Food CubesThese are small, incredibly durable, and made from glass. The glass jars are easy to clean, dishwasher safe, freezer safe and last forever. (Seriously, I’ve been using the same set for 7 years and they’re still as good as new!)
2. Beaba Food Storage Containers
I have two sets of these and I use them regularly for larger amounts of baby food (you could probably fit 4 cubes of frozen food, whether fruit, veggies, cereal, or a protein) and for toddler snacks. When assembled, they snap together, so they’re an easy way to stay organized.
3. Oxo Tot Baby Food Blocks
This neat system is easy to keep contained in the fridge and is also made from a polypropylene body that is PVC, BPA, and phthalate free. They are dishwasher and microwave safe. Less than $12 for a set of 6
4. ANYDAY 2-TABLESPOON FREEZER TRAY
This silicone tray allows you to easily freeze small portions of food for a future week. And it works just as well for sauces and dips, so you can use this product for years to come.
Homemade Baby Food Storage: In the Fridge
You can store baby food in the fridge in airtight containers for up to 3 days. You can use masking tape and a Sharpie to label the containers with the contents and the date if you have a hard time keeping track of when you made something. (It’s definitely helpful to do that!)
Homemade Baby Food Storage: In the Freezer
Storing homemade baby food in the freezer allows you to make a bigger batch at once, and then serve it to baby over the course of a few weeks or months.The easiest way is to use an ice cube tray, which has the added benefit of portioning out the baby food nicely.
Any ice cube tray will do. You can use silicone ice cube trays if you prefer a non-plastic option.
Baby Food Storage Without An Ice Cube Tray
If you don’t have an ice cube tray or you’d just rather not use one, you can place a predetermined amount of baby food into a pint-size freezer bag. Remove as much air as possible, press flat, and seal. Place flat in the freezer to freeze. Then you can thaw the entire bag in the fridge overnight, or break off a portion of it to thaw.
How to Freeze Baby Food Step-by-Step
- Place baby food into each compartment of the ice cube tray, or fill as many as you need to with the amount of baby food you have.
- Cover (if your ice cube tray has a cover) and freezer for 4-6 hours or overnight.
- Pop out frozen cubes and transfer to freezer storage bags. Label as desired with the type of baby food and the date.
- Store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
TIP: I like to have a bag of sweet fruit purees and more savory vegetable purees to avoid having too many separate bags in the freezer at any given time. Then you can combine them into baby food combinations easily!
How to Thaw Baby Food
To thaw baby food, simply remove a cube (or as many as you need) and place into airtight containers. Thaw overnight in the fridge and serve. 1 cube may be plenty for a baby aged 6-7 months and older babies may enjoy two cubes.
Baby Food Recipes to Try
Here are some of my most popular baby food recipes that store really well and are yummy options to try with baby.
Best Tips for Success
- Keep fresh baby food in an airtight container for up to 3 days in the fridge.
- Use a regular ice cube tray to freeze, a silicone ice cube tray with a lid, or a small freezer bag with the contents pressed flat.
- Store frozen baby food in a freezer storage bag in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- To avoid freezer burn, try to remove as much air as possible from the storage bags.
- Label your bags with the contents and the date.
- To thaw baby food, simply remove a cube (or as many as you need) and place into airtight containers. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
- Use leftover baby food to flavor yogurt, baby oatmeal, baby rice cereal, smoothies, or cottage cheese.
- See some of my favorite Baby Food Pouch recipes here for more ideas on how to serve your baby food!
Related Recipes
Baby Food
10 Easy Homemade Baby Food Ideas
Baby Food
Homemade Baby Rice Cereal
Starting Solids
Best Early Finger Foods for Baby
I’d love to hear your feedback if you have another storage technique or container that you love, so please comment below!
I noticed that you can add formula or breastmilk to purees. How does that work with storing it? I know formula and breasrmilk have some storage regulations. I used formula for an avocado purees and froze it. Is that still safe to use it? What about storing in the fridge? Usually formula only lasts 24 hrs in the fridge. Would that impact the purees too?
It’s safest to follow the same usage recommendations, so freeze what you won’t need and thaw/use a small amount at a time. Freezing the purees with breastmilk or formula is okay to do.
Thank you for this great article! My baby is 3 months, so we are starting to plan for the 6 month mark! My baby is also in daycare. Did you thaw the cube overnight and send the Tupperware with the thawed cube? If I thaw overnight, will it still be good by lunch time the next day? What do I instruct the daycare to do with the Tupperware with the thawed cube when I drop him off in the mornings?
Hi- You can thaw a cube in an airtight container overnight and send it to daycare the same way you would a fresh puree. It will need a quick stir but otherwise it will be good to go. Generally you’d want to tell daycare when to offer it (though they may have a routine with meals in the room they follow) and if you want them to spoon feed the baby or to preload the spoon and let baby feed themselves.
Do you have a recommendation for how to thaw frozen pureed cubes quickly (not overnight)? We have SouperCubes. Thank you!
You could either put the cube into a plastic bag and seal and place in hot water. Or place into a heat-safe bowl and microwave in 15-30 second increments until just thawed through.
i like this
Can I use nido for kids?
Nice work for that moms who are worried about their children
Thank you so much!!
Great article! Thank you
Hi, is it necessary to transfer my frozen baby food from the ice cube tray to a freezer Ziploc bag? Can the frozen baby food stay in the tray and only pop out each frozen cube when need to use it? Thank you.
The reason I recommend that is to prevent freezer burn and keep the frozen food fresher longer. Some ice cube trays come with a lid, which would also be an option. You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, though those are the reasons why I do. I hope that helps!
This is very helpful, thank you. Quick question though..how best to heat up thawed veg or meat purées? I don’t have a microwave but could get one if the amounts are too small to heat in a pan.
It may be hard to do it in a pan with the amounts so small. You could do it in a double boiler so the heat is more gentle I’d think though. Depending on the thickness, you may also be able to stir in a little hot water to warm thawed veg or meat purees to heat them to warm.
Thank you!
Hi! I have 2 questions. When freshly making baby food, it is best/safest to refrigerate immediately or let it cool first? Can I serve homemade baby food straight from the fridge or is it necessary to heat it (for safety)? Thank you!
Hi- I prefer to let the food cool first, at least slightly, so you’re not trapping all of the steam in the container. If it’s allowed to cool for 30-60 minutes at room temperature, that’s perfectly safe in terms of basic food safety. and you can serve it straight from the fridge—it does not need to be hot to be safe. Though some may taste a little better warmed a bit, but you can experiment and see what baby thinks! Let me know if you need anything else!
Thanks.
Great article! Thank you 🙂
Hello, I transfer my frozen baby food from ice cube trays to a freezer Ziploc bag. My concern is once I do that the food gets freezer burn. How do I make sure the food doesn’t get freezer burn or how do I know if it has freezer burn? I try to make sure all the air is out of the Ziploc bag as much as possible. I’m also trying to see if putting the Ziploc bag inside of a container will help. Any suggestions?
I think freezer burn can happen if air gets into the container, so yes, removing as much air as you can and maybe putting it into another bag or container may help. I think it sometimes happens when a freezer is opened a lot or doesn’t have a tight seal. (You might need to google that specific issue since I am not an expert on freezer burn.) Depending on how long you’re planning to store the food, this could be less of an issue. Often, ice crystals can form on food but that’s not a sign that anything is wrong other than additional liquid and air present. But again, you might want to look up freezer burn info specifically!
Once I remove the baby food from the freezer and thaw overnight in the fridge, is it safe to keep at room temperature if I am needing to leave the house and bring food with me?
It should be if it’s not for too long of a time. If you’re just transporting it somewhere, that’s fine. If it will be out of the fridge for more than 30 minutes, I usually pop it into a bag with an ice pack.
Can I use a regular ice cube tray without lid?
Sure thing!
The OXO containers you listed are plastic. You mentioned that they are glass. Not sure if you want to update that 🙂
Oh thank you!