August 23, 2024 – The struggle is real: If you're a busy parent on the lookout for easy, delicious foods in your child, these squeeze pouches are irresistible, especially when there's a promising note on the front of the package. “Organic”, “no added sweeteners”, “no preservatives” – that sounds healthy, right?
Well, in response to a new study More than 600 products from the highest 10 grocery stores within the U.S. were examined, nearly 60% of them baby food don't try this Nutritional standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO). The study was published this week within the journal Nutrients.
Researchers found that 70% of infant and toddler products didn’t meet the organization's protein requirements and 44% exceeded total sugar requirements. Lead study creator Elizabeth Dunford, PhD, a food health policy expert and associate professor on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, can be a mother of two young children.
As she shopped at big box stores, she became fascinated by the prepared foods on the newborn food aisle. Out of her own curiosity, she collected all the newborn food products herself before a team of researchers helped her analyze them.
“I have training in this area and even I find it difficult to decide relatively quickly which product on the baby food aisle is a better choice for my children,” Dunford said. “I myself am guilty of picking up a handy squeeze bag with something written on the front that grabbed me.”
Notably, 0% of the products examined met the claims that the product was advertised on its packaging.
Failure to fulfill or exceed WHO dietary requirements has greater than just short-term impacts on children's health. Introducing foods at this age will shape their future palates and influence what flavors and ingredients they’ll prefer later, said Denise Diaz Payán, PhD, a professor of health policy with expertise in nutrition and health disparities on the Joe C. Wen School of Population and Public Health on the University of California, Irvine.
Dependence on squeeze pouches also poses a specific threat to children's eating development.
“If you suck applesauce out of a bag, you lose the ability to learn how to eat from a spoon,” Dunford said. “If they never start eating out of a tub with a spoon and become completely messy, as we all did in our youth, they somehow lose this important period of eating behavior development.”
Dunford recommends parents, when purchasing for their children, take a fast have a look at the back of the package to see what the full sugar content is, whether there may be any added sugar, and scan the ingredients list to see if there may be anything in them don't understand it.
But not everyone turns the package over to have a look at the label, Payán noted. Research on this topic has shown that many groups of individuals don’t do that; And in that case, even fewer know what they’re reading or trying to find. That's why you turn to Labeling on the front of the packagingWhat has been done in Chile, Mexico and other countries all over the world could be a small but potentially game-changing policy change.