Most US baby food does not meet international health standards

Baby food companies are misrepresenting the health of their products. Many of the food items available at several grocery stores across the country advertised for ages 6 months to 36 months do not meet health standards set by the World Health Organization. This could be contributing to health problems down the line and contributing to the growing obesity epidemic in the United States.

False food facts

A study published in the journal Nutrients found that 60% of 651 foods in the U.S. marketed toward infants and toddlers failed to meet nutritional standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO). Almost all the foods also failed to meet the WHO’s advertising standards, requiring the product labels to be clear about ingredients and nutrition facts. “Time-poor parents are increasingly choosing convenience foods, unaware that many of these products lack key nutrients needed for their child’s development and tricked into believing they are healthier than they really are,” Elizabeth Dunford, one of the study authors, said in a press release.

Of all the tested products, 70% failed to meet WHO’s recommendation on protein content, 25% did not meet calorie recommendations and 20% had salt levels above the suggested limits. The most at fault were baby food pouches. “Research shows 50% of the sugar consumed from infant foods comes from pouches, and we found those were some of the worst offenders,” Dunford said to CNN. These are also some of the fastest-growing baby food products in the country because of their convenience. “Children have to learn to chew, so they should be eating regular fruits, not pureed, sweetened things in a pouch,” Mark Corkins, the St. Jude Endowed Chair for Excellence in Pediatric Gastroenterology at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, said to CNN. “Often, these blends are not natural and much sweeter than a real fruit, so the child’s being taught to only like supersweet things.”

In addition, over 99% of the tested products had some form of misleading advertising. The most common claims made were that products were non-genetically modified, organic, BPA-free and without artificial colors or flavors. “We saw this not only in the use of misleading claims but also in the use of misleading names, where the product name did not reflect the main ingredients found on the ingredient list,” Daisy Coyle, a coauthor of the study, said in the release. “For example, snack and finger foods often referred to as fruit or vegetables in the product name, despite primarily being made of flour or other starches.”

Baby got bad eating habits

Introducing processed foods and high levels of sugar at a young age can lead to negative health outcomes in the future. In the U.S., one in five children is affected by obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Early childhood is a crucial period of rapid growth and when taste preferences and dietary habits form, potentially paving the way for the development of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and some cancers later in life,” Dunford said in the release. Misleading products give parents an illusion of health without warnings of the potential implications.

Lack of regulation is a culprit. “The reason we call it the Wild West when we talk about the baby food aisle is that manufacturers get to pick and choose which elements of their product they want to highlight,” Dunford said. “They certainly don’t highlight the bad stuff, right? If their product is high in sugar, they’re just going to say, ‘no added colors or flavors’ on the label.” This allows companies to strategically avoid the bad content of their products. It is important for infants and toddlers to avoid high levels of sugar as well as eat a variety of foods. “These findings highlight that urgent work is needed to improve the nutritional quality of commercially produced infant and toddler foods in the United States,” the study said. “The high use of prohibited claims also suggests the need to regulate the type and number of claims allowed.”