Not a single baby or toddler food sold in Australian supermarkets meets international guidelines for health and promotion set by the World Health Organization, a new study has revealed.
Baby and toddler foods have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years, with hundreds of options featuring appealing characters to attract children, while marketing labels promote various health benefits to their parents.
More than three-quarters of the foods assessed did not meet the mark on overall nutritional requirements, with most of them containing excess calories or sugar.Research Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health, Dr Elizabeth Dunford, said consuming excess calories sets children up for obesity later in life, while the early introduction of sweetened foods can drive life-long taste preferences.
Australia's health guidelines recommend no sugars be added to foods for children under a year old, while consumption should be "limited" in children older than that. The baby foods were assessed against the WHO Regional Office for Europe's Nutrient and Promotion Profile Model, which was established in 2022 and is considered the gold standard benchmark.
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