WHO Europe studies find high levels of sugar content in baby food

Commercial baby foods contain high levels of sugar that could potentially be a source of health concern, according to two studies from the World Health Organisation (WHO) Europe.

The study found that the majority of baby foods available are incorrectly marketed with claims that they are suitable for infants under the age of six months. They also contain inappropriately high levels of sugar.

WHO Europe regional director Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab said: “Good nutrition in infancy and early childhood remains key to ensuring optimal child growth and development, and to better health outcomes later in life, including the prevention of overweight, obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), thereby making United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages much more achievable.”

WHO’s 2016 global Guidance on Ending the Inappropriate Promotion of Foods for Infants and Young Children clearly stated that commercial complementary foods should not be advertised for infants below six months of age.

WHO developed a draft Nutrient Profile Model (NPM) for children aged six to 36 months to guide decisions about foods that are not suitable for promotion for this age-group.

The NPM was put forward to member states and stakeholders for consideration and further discussion.

Additionally, WHO Europe developed a methodology to identify commercial baby foods that are available in retail outlets and for gathering nutritional content data available on labels, as well as other information from packaging.

The methodology was used to collect information about 7,955 food and drink products that were marketed for infants and young children from 516 stores in four cities in the WHO European Region between November 2017 and January 2018.

In three of the four cities where the data was gathered, half or more of the products contained more than 30% of the calories from sugars and around a third of the products listed sugar, concentrated fruit juice or other sweetening agents as an ingredient.