Jane Martin and Andrea Schmidtke
Picture this. You head into the supermarket to stock up on food for the week and a trip away at the weekend. Convenient food for your two-year-old is what you’re after — something healthy, but also something you know they’ll eat and that can be given to them in the pram or car.
You stand in front of the baby and toddler section, overwhelmed by the options. All products claim to be healthy. ‘No added sugar’ and ‘made with wholegrains’ it states on the packaging. In big writing it says: ‘No preservatives, colours or flavours’.
These are few of the many claims the processed food industry is using to make these products sound nutritious and wholesome.
But our new research published in The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health found a shocking 72% of baby and toddler foods in Australian supermarkets fail to meet all nutrition standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The first three years are the most critical for a child’s development and nutrition in early childhood can have long-term impacts on health and wellbeing.
So why are we letting the processed food industry make unhealthy products for babies and toddlers and market them as healthy?
Packaged foods are failing parents
As public health experts, we know parents are busy and are doing their best to provide their children with healthy food. It’s no surprise that many turn to packaged options to give them a helping hand when it comes to feeding their children.
For two in five children under three, packaged infant and toddler foods make up at least half of their diet. Parents should be able to trust that these foods support good health and nutrition, but the results of our research show that they usually can’t.
We compared 330 products from three major Australian supermarkets against a nutrient and promotion profile model (NPPM) developed by the WHO to ensure commercial food products for children aged 6-36 months are appropriate.
Just 28% of Australian products met all NPPM recommended standards for sugar, sweetness, sodium, fat, and energy.
Meanwhile, around 80% of Australian toddlers (two – three year olds) don’t eat the recommended serves of vegetables, half exceed the recommended sugar intake, and a quarter are above a healthy weight.
These unhealthy foods — that parents think they can trust — are contributing to the poor diets of our youngest Australians.
Regularly eating foods that are not nutritious also puts children at risk of tooth decay, unhealthy weight gain, and can shape their taste preferences and dietary patterns for life.
Jam-packed full of sugar
There is a real and urgent need for Australian regulations to align with international standards, particularly when it comes to sugar.
Shockingly, there is no limit on how much sugar can be in foods for babies and toddlers in Australia.
All dairy food products we analysed contained sugars prohibited under the NPPM, as did one in two snacks such as rusks, crackers, and biscuits.
Meanwhile, four percent of all packaged foods for babies and toddlers pack enough sugar to be classified as confectionary.
Some of these products are 60% sugar, making them more sugary than Minties or a Kit Kat!
According to the NPPM, such products should not be marketed or sold to this age group at all.
When it comes to sodium, the data tells a different story.
In Australia, there is some regulation around how much sodium can go into baby foods sold, but this same standard does not apply for toddler food.
Our research reflected this regulatory context, with baby foods more likely to comply with the NPPM sodium recommendations than toddler foods.
Misleading marketing
Our research shows that parents are being duped by the marketing tactics of the processed food industry.
They can’t be blamed when these products claim to be ‘made with real vegetables or wholegrains’, have ‘no added sugar’, or even ‘supporting little one’s development’.
Another Cancer Council Victoria study found these types of marketing tactics can influence parents’ perceptions of these foods and impact what they end up buying.
It’s no wonder the WHO recommends that baby and toddler foods carry zero claims – that’s right, not a single one.
Yet among the 330 the products we analysed, none complied with the WHO requirement that they should not carry compositional, nutritional, health or marketing claims.
What’s being done to stop this?
In Australia, there are currently no requirements that baby and toddler foods should provide good nutrition, or that they align with infant feeding and dietary guidelines.
There is also no requirement that these foods must meet a certain standard of nutrition before they can be marketed as ‘healthy’.
Food Ministers in Australia have said that improving standards for commercial infant and toddler foods is one of their priorities and consultation on options to improve these foods is anticipated later this year.
We strongly urge Food Ministers to make comprehensive changes to the way these foods are made, labelled, and marketed, bringing Australia in line with international guidance.
These changes are urgently needed so that when parents stand in front of the baby and toddler food section, they can trust that what they are buying won’t undermine their little ones’ health.
It’s what Australian parents and our youngest consumers deserve.
You can read the full research paper, “Compliance of Australian commercial foods for young children (<36 months) with an international nutrient and promotion profile model,” here.
Learn more and sign up to Food for Health Alliance’s Kids are Sweet Enough campaign.
Jane Martin is the Executive Manager, and Andrea Schmidtke the Senior Legal Policy Adviser, at the Food for Health Alliance.
Food for Health Alliance is a leading policy and advocacy voice to improve diets and prevent overweight and obesity in Australia, particularly for children.
Image: Karolina Grabowska via Pexels
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