Abstract
The aim was to determine whether commercial baby foods marketed within Europe (up to 36 months of age) have inappropriate formulation and high sugar content and to provide suggestions to update European regulations and recommendations as part of a nutrient profile model developed for this age group. The latter was produced following recommended World Health Organization (WHO) steps, including undertaking a rapid literature review. Packaging information from countries across the WHO European region was used to determine mean energy from total sugar by food category. The percentage of products containing added sugar and the percentage of savoury meal‐type products containing pureed fruit were also calculated. A total of 2,634 baby foods from 10 countries were summarised: 768 sold in the United Kingdom, over 200 each from Denmark (319), Spain (241), Italy (430) and Malta (243) and between 99–200 from Hungary, Norway, Portugal, Estonia and Slovenia. On average, approximately a third of energy in baby foods in these European countries came from total sugar, and for most food categories, energy from sugar was higher than 10%. Use of added sugars was widespread across product categories, with concentrated fruit juice most commonly used. Savoury meal‐type purees did not contain added sugars except in United Kingdom and Malta; however, fruit as an ingredient was found in 7% of savoury meals, most frequently seen in UK products. Clear proposals for reducing the high sugar content seen in commercial baby foods were produced. These suggestions, relating to both content and labelling, should be used to update regulations and promote product reformulation.
Highlights
The early life period from conception until 2 years of age—the socalled first 1,000 days of life—is a critical window during which the environment, including nutrition, can have a profound influence on the development of the foetus, infant and child (Woo Baidal et al, 2016) and the risk of disease in later life (Hanson & Gluckman, 2014; Langley-Evans, 2015)
This research shows that around a third of total energy in commercial baby foods examined in each of the 10 European countries comes from sugar
This is high and goes against the existing World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation to limit free sugars in foods for this age group and far exceeds WHO recommendations for older children of
Summary
The early life period from conception until 2 years of age—the socalled first 1,000 days of life—is a critical window during which the environment, including nutrition, can have a profound influence on the development of the foetus, infant and child (Woo Baidal et al, 2016) and the risk of disease in later life (Hanson & Gluckman, 2014; Langley-Evans, 2015). The high added, free or total sugar content of commercial baby foods is not fully addressed in existing guidelines To address such issues, the WHO guidance called for the development of nutrient profile models to guide decisions about which foods are inappropriate for promotion to infants and young children and ensure that permitted products are promoted appropriately, focusing on avoiding free sugars and salt (EC, 2006; WHA, 2016). We report whether baby foods marketed in countries across the WHO European region are inappropriate with respect to their sugar content and whether packaging and product names are misleading in this respect Based on these findings, we provide suggestions to update European regulations and recommendations in relation to sugar and sweet ingredients; these proposals were incorporated into the recently published draft nutrient profile model for infants and young children (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2019)
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