Two dads from Cuffley have launched the UK’s first fully personalised cookbook for children, featuring nutritional recipes and a number of characters.

Mission for Nutrition has been created by Chris Brady and Ashley Cain as they looked for a way to solve the problem of their own fussy eating children.

Using storytelling and characters, including Sammy Satsuma, Buster Banana, Peter Potato and Becki Broccoli, they hope the book will introduce children to cooking and create a healthy, balanced relationship with food.

“Primarily this is about making cooking fun, helping kids get comfortable in the kitchen from a young age and having some bonding time with their parents away from screens,” said Ashley.

“And we have seen first-hand with our own children that the concept works by building the relationship between the child and the characters. This enables the characters to subtly convey the benefits of eating fruit and vegetables.

“We’ve seen the difference it can make to a child’s healthy food choices.”

With the personalised recipe book a parent or child can choose their favourite recipes from a range of 100 different meals or snacks, with the child’s name and avatar featuring throughout the book and within the recipes.

In addition to the fully personalised recipe book, Sammy Satsuma also launches with a personalised adventure book and two story books.

Television cook, food writer and chef Jo Pratt has supported Mission for Nutrition, contributing recipes include Christopher Corn’s Easy Peasy Pizza, Mo Mango’s Chicken Curry and Lenny Lemon’s Yoghurt Cake.

“This isn’t about being the food police,” explains Jo.

“It’s about using character bonding and storytelling to engage children on their level and subtly introduce them to healthy eating and making recipes.

“With a fifth of children leaving primary school in the obese category, it’s important that we start to educate our children the youngest age possible.

“That’s why we also have plans to produce an early learning range of books to introduce children from the age of 12 months to our characters and their associated fruit and vegetable journeys.”

To find out more, visit www.sammysatsuma.com.