Infant and toddler foods are a rapidly expanding market in Australia – but a study this week found none of the infant or toddler food products stocked in Australian supermarkets meet World Health Organization standards.
The entire category of toddler foods has been accused of being an unnecessary marketing exercise as nutritional guidelines say children do not require special foods once they are 12 months old and can eat the same as the rest of the family.
Published in Maternal and Child Nutrition on Tuesday, the study assessed more than 300 foods marketed for six-month-old to three-year-old children and sold in Australian supermarkets against the WHO Regional Office for Europe’s nutrient and promotion profile model. The model is considered a gold standard benchmark to ensure products for infants and young children are of high nutritional quality and promoted appropriately.
More than three-quarters of the products failed overall nutritional requirements, while all items flunked the promotional requirements, research led by the George Institute for Global Health found.
However, Dr Daisy Coyle, a dietitian at the George Institute and an author of the paper, says infant and toddler food products are not going anywhere because “the reality is parents are really time-poor and looking for convenience”.
Parents need to be supported to help make healthy decisions for their children because a staggering number of unregulated claims on these products mislead parents into thinking these often sugar-loaded products are healthy, Coyle said.
The government’s food regulation committee is now carrying out public consultation scoping out regulatory options to improve the nutritional composition and labelling of these foods.
But, in the meantime, what products can parents trust?
Out of the 309 infant and toddler food products assessed, the researchers found 70 met the WHO’s nutritional criteria, meaning they met minimum benchmarks for nutrients such as protein, and did not exceed limits for sugar, added sugars, salt and fat.
Check out the 70 products below.
