CNN
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Baby food aisles in the United States are full of unnutritious foods that are loaded with sugar and salt and make misleading marketing claims, a new study finds.
Sixty percent of 651 foods marketed to children ages 6 to 36 months on the shelves of 10 U.S. supermarkets did not meet the World Health Organization’s nutritional recommendations for foods for infants and young children, according to the study published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrients.
Almost None of the foods met all of the WHO’s standards for advertising, which emphasize clear labeling of ingredients and specific health claims.
Of all the products studied, 70% did not meet WHO recommendations for protein content and 25% did not meet calorie recommendations, the researchers found. One in five baby and toddler foods contained salt levels above the organization’s recommended limits.
A quarter of the products contained added or hidden sweeteners, and 44% of baby and toddler foods exceeded WHO recommendations for total sugars, said the study’s lead author, Dr. Elizabeth Dunford, an adjunct assistant professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Research shows that 50% of the sugar consumed in baby food comes from sachets, and we found that these were among the worst offenders,” said Dunford, who is also a researcher at the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, which created FoodSwitch, an app that contains nutritional information on thousands of products around the world.
Baby food pouch sales up 900% in US Over the past 13 years, the study found that sachets are one of the fastest growing market segments.
The growing demand is understandable, because the ease and convenience of the pouches can make them irresistible to overworked and stressed parents and caregivers, said Dr. Mark Corkins, St. Jude Endowed Chair for Excellence in Pediatric Gastroenterology at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. He was not involved in the new study.
“These pockets are very concerning,” said Corkins, who is also chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Nutrition.
“Children need to learn to chew, so they should eat regular fruit, not sugary purees from a bag,” he said. “Often these blends are unnatural and much sweeter than real fruit, so you teach the child to only like very sweet things.”
Then there’s the issue of texture, which must be learned at a critical age, Corkins added.
“We advise parents to gradually increase the texture of foods when introducing real foods between 6 months and 1 year,” Corkins said. “If you don’t expose children to a variety of textures with more chewing during this critical period, they can develop a texture aversion and refuse anything that isn’t a smooth, pureed food.”
CNN reached out to several industry associations that represent various baby food manufacturers but did not receive a response before publication.
Lack of guidelines for foods for infants and young children
The study looked at more than 650 products collected in 2023 from the baby food aisles of 10 major U.S. supermarkets. It did not analyze dairy products or other refrigerated foods marketed to children.
The names and brands of the foods were not disclosed in the study.
The researchers applied the nutritional and promotional recommendations for commercially produced infant and toddler foods, formulated in 2022 by the WHO Regional Office for Europe. The WHO recommendations aim to address the global disorder in nutritional advice on baby and toddler foods, which is worse in the United States than in other Western countries. countries, experts say.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has regulations on infant formula and arsenic levels in baby foods, and it makes recommendations on food safety and handling.
“Are there specific regulations for infant and toddler foods in different countries? The answer is no, but in Europe, the UK, New Zealand and Australia, where I come from, there are broader regulations on how ingredients can be listed on packaging, which also impact on foods given to children,” Dunford said.
For example, if a savory food consisted of 10 percent spinach, 8 percent beef and 2 percent potatoes, leaving the bulk of the product as apples or pears (which are often used as sweeteners in baby foods), the name of the product in those countries would be “Pear, Spinach, Beef and Potato Pie,” she said.
Manufacturers in these countries are also required to clearly state percentages on the label, such as “spinach (10%), beef (8%) and potatoes (2%), which makes it clear how much pear or apple is included,” Dunford said. “In the U.S., on the other hand, there are no such regulations, so it’s harder to understand what’s in the products you’re buying.”
These hidden sweeteners could be a major reason why only 31% of non-fruit sachets meet WHO recommendations for total sugar, Dunford said.
Almost all (99.4%) of the 651 products studied contained at least one marketing claim prohibited by WHO recommendations. Products had an average of four or five such claims, and some had as many as 13, the study found.
Common claims included “not genetically modified” or GMO (70%); “organic” (59%); “BPA (bisphenol A) free” (37%); and “no artificial colors or flavors” (25%). The WHO frowns on such marketing claims because they can lead consumers to believe the product is more nutritious than the one next to it on the shelf, which may or may not be true, Dunford said.
“The reason we’re talking about the baby food aisle is because manufacturers can pick and choose what elements of their products they want to emphasize,” Dunford said. “They’re certainly not emphasizing the wrong elements, right? If their product is high in sugar, they’re just going to say ‘no added colors or flavors’ on the label.”
Countries like Australia, she added, require ingredients to meet a minimum nutrient profile: if a food or drink doesn’t meet a basic nutritional standard, the manufacturer isn’t allowed to make a specific health claim about that ingredient.
“If that product doesn’t meet the minimum nutrient profile for calcium, for example, they can’t put calcium on their label,” Dunford said.
According to the researchers, about 62% of the products studied made general health and nutrition claims, while 58% made claims about specific ingredients.
“Snacks and finger foods often refer to fruits or vegetables in the product name, even though they are primarily made of flour or other starches,” said study co-author Dr. Daisy Coyle, a researcher and dietitian at the George Institute for Global Health.
“The lack of regulation in this area leaves the door wide open for the food industry to deceive busy parents,” Coyle said in a statement.
Such claims create a “health halo” around these baby food products, experts say.
“One of the biggest concerns about baby and toddler foods is the often fictitious health claims on the front of products,” Corkins said. “Some of these are blatant, others are implicit and can mislead parents and guardians.”
“A concerned, well-meaning parent will read claims like ‘healthy and nutritious’ and not only buy those products, but spend more money on them because of those claims,” he said.
