Ramekins with a colorful assortment of pureed baby foods, displayed alongside fruits and vegetables.

Vaaseenaa/Getty Images

Remember when the baby food diet was a thing? The idea was that replacing solid meals with jars of baby food would help reduce your caloric intake and detox your system. It was, of course, inadvisable to follow, especially since a 2024 study published in Nutrients found that 60% of baby food on the market failed to meet nutritional requirements. However, before science told us otherwise, one of the world's most recognizable baby food brands tried to convince us that their products were good for grown-ups.

Singles by Gerber was a line of jarred, pureed meals marketed towards unwed adults. In an archived 1974 ad originally published in the Fresno Bee (via newspapers.com), the product was positioned as a nutritious option for people who didn't have the know-how to cook for themselves. The ad also features the clumsily worded tagline: "We were good for you then. Now we're good for you now." Flavors included more grown-up fare like Beef Burgundy, Ham Casserole, Sweet and Sour Pork, and Turkey Mornay, as opposed to the pureed fruits and vegetables that Gerber was known for.

According to a 1974 article in The La Crosse Tribune (via newspapers.com), Gerber may have come up with the idea because the baby boom was over; with fewer pregnancies in the 1970s, the company could have lost 25% of its potential market. However, the old-school product only lasted three months before Gerber pulled the plug (per Harvard Business Review), with multiple marketing textbooks noting that adults just couldn't shake off the company's baby-oriented branding.

Gerber's baby food for adults may have been a victim of its own marketing

Jars of assorted Gerber baby food products on a grocery shelf.

Sheila Fitzgerald/Shutterstock

The funny thing is that Singles by Gerber could still be around today if it had been marketed better. People enjoy smoothies and meal replacement drinks like Soylent in place of solid food every now and then, and multiple Reddit users have admitted to enjoying baby food. Other baby food brands acknowledge their grown-up market — Bambino's has a page on its website recommending its products for people with various dietary needs, while German brand Hipp found that 25% of its consumers in 2010 were adults (via The Guardian).

Baby food is also a surprisingly useful ingredient. Paula Deen, for example, makes her Sweet Baby Jack Carrot Cake with two jars of carrot baby food, while writer Callie Wright found that peach baby food made for a great Bellini cocktail (via Bon Appetit). You can make your own baby food at home if you ever wanted to give it a try, but the pre-made jars are a lot more convenient.

There is clearly a market for pureed adult meals. Gerber's mistake in the 1970s was making the product too similar to baby food by keeping its brand name and selling it in similar jars. At the same time, marketing it as a brand for single adults made the product feel like it was something you settled for rather than wanted. Instead of joking about adult baby food on April Fool's Day or limiting its snack recipes using baby food to infants and toddlers, maybe Gerber could win over the market that rejected them simply by taking adults a little more seriously.