Baby Food Industry Research Articles

Solving the weanling's dilemma: power-flour to fuel the gruel?

When an infant is around 6 months old, its diet of breast milk and/or formula must be supplemented to fill the energy gap. The baby food industry in developed countries meets the nutritional needs of infants, but, in developing countries, low calorie and low protein content traditional weaning foods, usually gruels based on cereal flours, pose several risk to infants. They often sit a ambient temperatures after preparation providing ideal conditions for pathogenic organisms to grow. Infants eating this contaminated gruel often fall ill with diarrhea. Moreover infants are often undernourished during the weaning period because the gruel does provide the necessary nutrients and calories. This only exacerbates infections. Therefore infants experience growth faltering. In fact, 50% of the children in developing countries are undernourished and their growth and development are hindered. Further, the starch in the gruels swell and gelatinize when heated constituting a viscous, bulky, water retaining paste on cooling making it is too thick for young infants to eat. Plus the starch may not be fully digested. Gruel with added amylase helps digestion. Malting changes the starch to dextrins and maltose which are easily consumed, digested, and absorbed. The addition of oil, fat, or sugar helps in caloric density. In fact, the energy density can double from 40-50 kcal/dl to 80-100 kcal/dl. Another effective process to improve protein and energy digestibilities is fermentation (souring) of cereal gruels. A bonus of fermentation is that the gruel does not promote growth of enteropathogenic bacilli thereby increasing the gruel's shelf life and reducing the incidence of diarrhea. Researchers need to conduct controlled studies of improved traditional weaning foods to determine their ease of preparation and cultural acceptability.

Is breastfeeding still in decline? The need to reinforce existing policies

Breast feeding has been declining in developing countries. Bottle fed infants are at least 14 and 6 times more apt to acquire fatal diarrhea and respiratory infections respectively than exclusively breast fed infants. Modern technologies female participation in the work force increased rural-urban migration and new lifestyles have contributed to this downward trend. Health services also contribute by separating mothers and newborns after birth using prelacteal bottle feeds and not providing breast feeding support for mothers. Infant formula companies also advertise and promote their products enticing women not to breast feed despite international approval of the WHO international code of marketing of breast milk substitutes in May 1981. By 1988 however only 6 countries adopted the complete code as legislation and only 2 implemented it as voluntary. Moreover 8 countries are using a voluntary code authored by the baby food industry. Beginning in 1988 the international family planning community developed a consensus statement promoting breast feeding as a means to maximize birth spacing. Another newly learned advantage of breast feeding is a lower risk of developing breast cancer. A 3 site collaborative study indicates that combined oral contraceptives significantly reduced milk output and mineral and nitrogen content but progesterone only contraceptives did not significantly reduce output. Even though it has not been conclusively proven that HIV can be transmitted via breast milk WHO recommend mothers to breast feed because of its inherent benefits. WHO/UNICEFs joint statement on breast feeding adhered maternity units to eliminate glucose water and infant formula use. Support services for breast feeding mothers will also increase breast feeding. Mass media breast feeding promotional campaigns will heighten the publics awareness as well.

Technical note: loss of nitrate from carrots during blanching

Loss of nitrate from carrots during blanching was studied using several parameters, such as temperature of water, thickness of carrot slices, and volume ratio of carrots and water. It was found that the kinetics of nitrate diffusion fitted well to the Fick's general diffusion equation. Surface mass transfer coefficient (K) was related to temperature by an Arrhenius type reaction. The values of activation energy (Ea) and the constant K0 were calculated as 74 kJ/mole and 2769 × 103 kg/m2/sec. As expected the initial rates of diffusion were proportional to carrot surface and the efficiency of nitrate removal decreased with increasing blancher load. The proposed model may be used to determine the optimum blanching conditions of carrots in the baby food industry.

Some thoughts about infant feeding.

This article summarizes the nutritional considerations, impact on infection and immunity, and psychosocial aspects of the breast versus bottle feeding debate and concludes with guidelines for reorganizing government health services to promote breastfeeding. Its aim is to encourage reappraisal on the part of physicians of the direct implications of infant feeding for the health and well-being of people in all societies, but especially in developing countries. As a result of widespread abandonment of breastfeeding in developing countries, marasmus and infant diarrhea have increased. Although the biologic advatages of breast over bottle feeding are indisputable, the social and economic advantages are more difficult to quantify. Many Third World women curtail breastfeeding to meet the conditions of employment; however, the economic advantages of artificial feeding diminish as one descends down the pay scale. The counterproductive trend toward bottle feeding has been compounded by adoption of this method on the part of the educated elite in Third World countries, including medical and nursing professionals, thus conferring on it as status associated with progress and affluence. The present trend can be reversed only if communities are convinced of the advantages of breastfeeding and make adjustments to facilitate this practice. Preparation for motherhood must be viewed as an integral function of the health care system, with emphasis placed on the nutrition of pregnant and lactating women, preparation for breastfeeding, and the initiation and continuation of breastfeeding. Obstetric units must actively discourage the removal of infants from their mothers or routine artificial feeding. In addition, facilities must be provided at workplaces for breastfeeding, the working day should be modified to allow brestfeeding, maternity leaves should be extended, and appropriate payments should be made to nursing mothers. The nutrition needs of infants must be viewed as a shared responsibility of the communiuty, the medical and nursing professions, and the baby food industry.

Infant feeding in developing countries: combating the multinationals imperative.

Methods used by baby food companies in seducing mothers away from breast feeding are well known: aggressive advertising campaigns offering of free samples of formulas and of powdered milk and enlisting the support of medical and paramedical personnel. These companies also managed to gain the support of the Western medical profession for bottle feeding over breast feeding; it is likewise possible that academics in the social sciences will be co-opted to increase the sale of artificial baby foods in developing countries. These academics will attempt to create more markets for multinationals of the baby food industry by declaring that women in developing countries want their products. The biochemical and immunological advantages of breast milk over cows milk and other formulas have been well documented; the economic factors in terms of the cost-benefit advantages of human milk especially in developing countries are obvious at a family and at a national level since much artificial milk has to be imported resulting in a loss of much needed capital in foreign exchange payments. There is ample documentation of the association of bottle feeding with increase in infant mortality due to lack of the necessary facilities and hygienic conditions; breast feeding can also contribute to postponing ovulation and therefore conception. In most Western societies a supportive figure for offering moral and psychological understanding to nursing mothers such as the doula in more traditional cultures is lacking and anxiety fear and stress are often associated with breast feeding. Also problems with breast feeding occur mainly in those societies where the breast has become a kind of sexual fetish and is not perceived as a functional object for the nurture of infants. Medical and paramedical personnel can play an important role in promoting breast feeding and infant nutrition education should be imparted to all expecting mothers.