HiPP Favourite Stars 30g

HiPP Favourite Stars, 30 g, from 12 months

HiPP Favourite Stars are an organic grain snack for children from 12 months, which HiPP describes as from 1 year, in a 30 g pack. They are small star shapes made from 89 percent organic cereals, colored only with organic juice concentrates of carrot, pumpkin, beet, apple and blackcurrant, with added vitamin B1. There is no added flavoring. A portion is about 15 stars, roughly 6 g, as part of a snack.

The interesting thing about this pack is how the color is done. The stars are red, and HiPP states they are sprayed only with natural organic juice colors: carrot, pumpkin and beet for the color itself, with apple and blackcurrant alongside. No added colorings and no added flavorings go in. A red snack food for a one-year-old with nothing synthetic doing the coloring is not a given, and it is the main reason to prefer this pack over a supermarket equivalent.

The grain content is high. 89 percent cereal flour, made up of wholegrain millet, wheat, corn, wholegrain spelt and wholegrain barley. Three of those five are wholegrain and three of them carry gluten, since spelt is itself a type of wheat. HiPP notes that on the pack, which is the sort of detail most labels leave you to work out.

The remaining 11 percent is the five juice concentrates and the vitamin. That makes this one of the shorter ingredient lists in a children's snack: five cereals, five juices, one vitamin. Nothing is added to sweeten it beyond what the apple and the other juices bring.

HiPP gives a specific daily portion, which is unusually precise for a snack: about 15 stars, approximately 6 g, ideally as part of a snack rather than as a meal. At 6 g a portion, a 30 g pack is about five portions, and knowing that changes how the pack gets used.

The shape is the other half of the design. A star is small, flat and easy for a one-year-old to pick up between finger and thumb, which is the grip a child has by 12 months. HiPP presents it as a snack for in-between and for little hands, and that is exactly what it is.

Where a star snack fits in a child's day

Between meals, in a measured portion. HiPP is explicit that these are ideally part of a snack rather than a meal, and the 6 g portion backs that up: it is a small amount, designed to fill a gap rather than to take the place of lunch.

At 12 months a child is developing the pincer grip, picking up small objects between finger and thumb, and a flat star shape is well suited to practicing that. A snack that a child can manage without help is doing something beyond feeding them, which is part of why this format exists at all.

It travels, and that is most of its practical value. A 30 g pack of dry stars needs no spoon, no bowl and no preparation, it does not crush easily and it fits a pocket. That makes it the thing that lives in the bag for the journey home rather than the thing in the cupboard.

How to serve them

What about 15 stars actually amounts to

HiPP gives both the pack size and the portion, so the arithmetic for this pack works out completely, which is rare. This is what that gives you.

About 75 stars in a pack, and about five portions. That is the kind of figure worth knowing before you open one, because it tells you a pack is a few days of snacks rather than a single sitting.

The 30 g pack size, the 15 star portion and the 6 g portion weight are HiPP's own figures for this product. The portions per pack, the star count and the cereal weight in a portion are those figures divided and multiplied, not separate measurements, and HiPP's own figures are approximate to begin with. We have not been able to source a verified nutrition table per 100 g for this pack, so none is printed.

What is in it

The allergy note as it stands on this product: may contain traces of MILK, MUSTARD. HiPP's own published listing for this product flags milk including lactose, gluten and celery. The two lists differ; read the panel on the pack you have, because that is the declaration that governs, and treat either list as a reason to check rather than to assume.

Read plainly, that is five cereals at 89 percent, five fruit and vegetable juice concentrates and one added vitamin. Eleven items, no added color, no added flavoring and nothing added to sweeten beyond the juices themselves.

• 89% organic cereals
• Wholegrain millet, spelt and barley
• Colored with juice concentrates only
• Carrot, pumpkin and beet
• Apple and blackcurrant
• No added flavorings
• With added vitamin B1
• A shape for small hands
• Contains gluten

How far a 30 g pack goes

Both figures are HiPP's own, so this divides cleanly. A 30 g pack at a 6 g portion is about five portions, and at about 15 stars a portion that is roughly 75 stars in a pack.

A dry snack has no fluid yield at all, so there is no ounce figure for this pack. Stars and portions are the measures that mean something, and both of them come from HiPP's own numbers.

HiPP gives both the portion and the star count as approximate, so the derived figures above are approximate too. Treat about five portions as a planning figure rather than a count.

Product highlights

• Organic grain snack in star shapes
• From 12 months
• 30 g pack
• 89% organic cereals
• Wholegrain millet, spelt, barley
• Colored with juice concentrates
• No added flavorings
• With added vitamin B1
• About 15 stars per portion
• About 5 portions per pack
• EU organic certified
• Contains gluten

Frequently asked questions

Other HiPP snacks and what goes with these

• HiPP Organic Millet Sticks, 30 gThe same 30 g format, gluten-free, from the 8th month.
• HiPP Organic Blueberry Rice Cakes, 30 gA round rice cake snack from the 8th month, with 30 percent less sugar than comparable cakes.
• HiPP Organic Berry Muesli, 200 gA berry muesli from the same 12 month stage, 70 percent whole flakes.
• HiPP Organic Breakfast Rings, 135 g88 percent cereals in ring shapes, from 15 months, also eaten dry.
• HiPP HiPPiS Organic Smoothie Pouch, 100 gA fruit pouch from the same 12 month stage, for a change of texture.
• HiPP Organic Crunchy Muesli, 200 gA crunchy muesli with 74 percent grain, from the 15th month.