Little Dish, the family-run brand that pioneered fresh food for children in the supermarket chilled aisle, has been named a finalist for the ITV Growth Accelerator Award at the 2026 Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards. The recognition marks two decades of a business that has grown from a trial in 20 stores into a national brand.
In 2006, founder Hillary Graves spotted a gap in the market for fresh, healthy meals for young children. At the time, shop-bought options for babies and toddlers were largely limited to ambient jars and pouches with a shelf life of up to two years. For 20 years, Little Dish has instead listened to parents and little ones to perfect a range of delicious, healthy and convenient meals designed for busy family life.
Recipes built around child nutrition
Little Dish meals are made with all-natural ingredients, provide at least one of a child’s recommended five a day, contain a source of fibre and no added salt or sugar, and are nutritionally balanced for young children. The recipes were developed alongside baby and child nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed and approved by a panel of 250 Tiny Tasters, and the company says they contain a wide variety of vegetables, herbs and spices. Unlike ultra-processed baby and toddler foods, it adds, Little Dish meals include exciting textures to help little ones develop a healthy palate.
Sustainability and social impact
The brand says it introduced the UK’s first 100 per cent recyclable wood-fibre kids’ meal tray, and since 2023 it has partnered with The Felix Project to donate more than 800,000 meals to children in need through its Buy One, Give One promise. The partnership has been recognised across the sector, and the company was awarded a Grocer Gold prize in 2025 for its consumer initiative work with the charity.
Growth across the family food aisle
Little Dish has continued to widen its range. In 2024, responding to parents asking for healthy meals for older children, it launched bigger portions, fresh after-school meals for bigger kids. In 2025 it reinvigorated the frozen aisle with Superstars chicken nuggets with hidden veg, a healthier take that parents could feel good about serving.
Since 2006, the company reports scaling from that first trial in 20 stores to a brand worth more than £30 million in national distribution, and says it is now the UK’s fastest-growing adult and children’s ready meal brand with 49 per cent year-on-year sales growth. Along the way, it says, it has brought stress-free mealtimes to hundreds of thousands of families and challenged industry norms about what healthy, convenient food can look like.
As a finalist in the ITV Growth Accelerator Award, Little Dish joins a shortlist of high-growth UK businesses. Winners of the Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards will be announced on 10 November 2026 at Grosvenor House in London.
