The Sweet Potatoes & Wild Alaska Salmon is one of 17 new products being introduced by Beech-Nut to promote healthy digestion, enhance mental and visual development, improve concentration and encourage growth, said officials with the Latham N.Y. Firm.

DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid that supports babies' mental and visual development.

Beech-Nut officials announced the new products April 2, saying they bring nutrition in baby food to a whole new level, with more choices than ever before.

The product also offers a new market for pink salmon, which is being used in an increasing number of products for restaurants, food services and meals at home.

“We're really happy to get into an area where nutrition is of such primary importance to buyers,” said Tom Sunderlund of Ocean Beauty Seafoods, the Seattle-based fish processor selling the frozen salmon to the baby food company.

“I have two kids myself and nothing matters as much as nutrition for baby food,” he said. “It's about a reasonably priced nutritious raw material in a new form for a new consumer. It's all based on nutrition and sustainability.”

Bob Pawlowski, executive director of the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation in Anchorage, said he sees great potential for the baby food, and not just in North American markets.

Beech-Nut is owned by Hero Ag, an international consumer foods group based in Lenzburg, Switzerland. Sweet potatoes also have taste recognition in warm climates around the world, Pawlowski said.

The foundation got involved in this process in 2005. The University of Alaska Fairbanks got a $449,000 federal grant to develop alternative products for meals and minced food using wild Alaska seafood.

UAF researchers needed to involve an industry foundation in the project. The foundation took on the role of talking with manufacturers and processors in an attempt to find a team that could meet manufacturers' needs for new products.

“I believe we have the opportunity in Alaska to provide the pink salmon and pollock to put into baby food,” Pawlowski said. “It's the right price, and from a clean environment. We know that our pollock is as of as high a quality as pink salmon and is appropriate for baby food. We talked to several major baby food producers, but only one had any interest. Beech-Nut has its own research and development staff. What was important to them was to find a source of the fish that could be produced to their standards and their price range.”

An added plus for the Alaska seafood industry is that each jar of the new baby food will have the logo of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute on the label, he said.