Annabel Karmel: How I turned my food into a global brand

Annabel Karmel saw a gap in the baby food market when she noticed that only boring long-life meals were available. Now a recognised author of child-nutrition books and host of "Annabel's Kitchen" on CITV, she has partnered with Disney to sell internationally.

When Annabel Karmel's son, two-year-old Nicholas, stopped eating properly, she realised "there is so much emphasis on what babies can't eat that what is left is not very tasty". A trained cook, Karmel began experimenting with new recipes.

Realising that Nicholas's nursery playmates were having similar problems, she began handing out her recipes to other mums. "The response was amazing. They all loved them and kept telling me that I should write a book." But it would be two years (spent studying food nutrition) before she would write The Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner in 1991. It remains a bestseller and over the years she has penned 26 child-nutrition books.

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James McKeigue

James graduated from Keele University with a BA (Hons) in English literature and history, and has a certificate in journalism from the NCTJ. James has worked as a freelance journalist in various Latin American countries.He also had a spell at ITV, as welll as wring for Television Business International and covering the European equity markets for the Forbes.com London bureau. James has travelled extensively in emerging markets, reporting for international energy magazines such as Oil and Gas Investor, and institutional publications such as the Commonwealth Business Environment Report. He is currently the managing editor of LatAm INVESTOR, the UK's only Latin American finance magazine.