Baby food labels are misleading parents, experts warn

‘Health halo’ labels on baby foods ‘trick parents into thinking meals are healthy’ as officials warn some children’s snacks are as bad as sweets because they’re so high in sugar

• Public Health England today published a report saying baby food must change
• Parents don’t bother checking ingredients if something looks healthy
• And some baby food snacks contain an entire day’s worth of sugar for a toddler 
• One expert said the amount of sugar-packed snacks for babies is ‘shocking’

‘Health halo’ labels on baby foods are tricking parents into thinking meals are healthier than they are, experts have warned.

The logos, which boast of ‘no added sugar’, ‘organic’ or ‘preservative free’ may be so specific they don’t give a full picture of how unhealthy something is.

‘No added sugar’, for example, doesn’t actually reveal anything about how much sugar is in something – it may still contain a huge amount of fructose from fruit.

Public Health England today published a report telling the Government to force food manufacturers to label their food ‘honestly’ to avoid misleading parents. 

And the government body added some snacks aimed at babies and young children were just as unhealthy as sweets. 

One campaign group has warned the baby food market in the UK is ‘shocking’ and stacked with unhealthy, sugary options. 

Public Health England warned that parents may be misled into thinking baby foods are healthy because they’re labelled with ‘health halos’ such as ‘organic’ (pictured left) and it also called for companies to stop targeting food at children younger than four months (right)

PHE’s report said children’s health is at risk because snack foods, which may be packed with sugar, are becoming a normal addition to their diets. 

‘What’s going on at the moment is that there’s been a big expansion in the baby snack food market and lots of those are high-sugar snacks,’ said PHE’s chief nutritionist, Dr Alison Tedstone.

‘Some of these products have lots of statements saying they are one of your five a day, organic or full of vitamins. People can think these are great products that are good for you.

‘But we are concerned about the high sugar content of these products and the growth in the market in that area.’ 

Some products, such as those shaped as small fruit drops or strips, were as high in sugar as sweets, she added.

‘They are basically sweets but they are marketed as being 100% pure and it’s confusing parents,’ she said.

‘When you eat those products they stick to your teeth – that will cause tooth decay.’  

The report comes after the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health warned infants are getting hooked on sugar because of excessively sweet baby foods.

It called for the Government to limit how much sugar is put in these first meals – particularly those which come in pouches and jars – and PHE is now echoing its demands.

It said around one in five toddlers are overweight or obese in England and one in eight have visible tooth decay.

A review of 1,120 baby foods and drinks found many are unhealthy or unethically marketed.

HOW MUCH SUGAR IS TOO MUCH?

The amount of sugar a person should eat in a day depends on how old they are.

Children aged four to six years old should be limited to a maximum of 19g per day.

Seven to 10-year-olds should have no more than 24g, and children aged 11 and over should have 30g or less.  

Popular snacks contain a surprising amount of sugar and even a single can of Coca Cola (35g of sugar) or one Mars bar (33g) contains more than the maximum amount of sugar a child should have over a whole day.  

A bowl of Frosties contains 24g of sugar, meaning a 10-year-old who has Frosties for breakfast has probably reached their limit for the day before they even leave the house.  

Children who eat too much sugar risk damaging their teeth, putting on fat and becoming overweight, and getting type 2 diabetes which increases the risk of heart disease and cancer.

Source: NHS 

More than a third of the foods available (34.5 per cent) were snacks, of which dried fruit have high levels of sugar and shouldn’t be eaten between meals. 

Dried fruit products could get away with having a ‘health halo’ label showing there is no added sugar, for example.

But fruit is naturally high in what are called ‘free sugars’ which, although they have less of a bad reputation than refined sugar, are just as unhealthy.

In their report, PHE experts revealed examples of foods which were very sweet but were sold as vegetable products.

One pouch labelled broccoli, pear and peas actually had 79 per cent pear, 14 per cent peas and 7 per cent broccoli, while carrot oat bars were 30 per cent apple puree and just 11 per cent carrot powder.

Kale, kiwi, peas and pear had 53 per cent pear as the main ingredient, followed by 22 per cent kale and 13 per cent pea.

When it came to snacks, some claimed to be ‘packed with seven key vitamins and minerals including iron and calcium’ but were almost a third sugar, with 29g of sugar per 100g of the product.

Another marketed as ‘one of five a day’ and ‘packed with real fruit’ had 67.7g of sugar.

Snacks based on fruits and vegetables – such as fruit crisps, dried fruit or cereal bars – were found to be the worst offenders on the sugar front.

They contained an average of 9.4g of sugar per 100g, according to Public Health England’s research.

Some items would be smaller than 100g but 9.4g is around half the daily sugar limit for a four-year-old – babies should eat even less.

The most sugary snacks aimed at babies had a staggering 19.5g of sugar – more than an entire day’s worth for a four to six-year-old.

‘The current state of the UK’s baby food market is shocking,’ said Dr Kawther Hashem, a nutritionist for the campaign group Action on Sugar.

‘Sugar laden products such as biscuits and wafers make up two-thirds of the baby finger food category.   

‘What’s more, parents are often misled into thinking these foods are healthy because they are labelled “no added sugar” or “organic”. 

‘The Government must act now and tackle this issue head on by enforcing the key recommendations in the report.’

Surveys done by PHE found parents admitted that labels implying foods were healthy made them less likely to check what was actually in something.

Many said they trusted that food formulated and sold for babies would be made in a way which was healthy for babies to eat.

And they agreed the way they are packaged – they may have pictures of fruits, vegetables or grass on them – made them look genuinely healthy.

Baby foods which are made to look healthy and based on fruit may still contain unhealthy amounts of sugar, experts have warned 

Four-year-olds should be limited to 19g of sugar per day, and toddlers even less than that – but some baby foods contain almost that much in a single serving

PHE said there should be stricter rules on the ingredients used in baby foods and the packaging and techniques used to market them.

It also added companies should stop marking items as safe for children from four months, and discourage parents from allowing their children to suck liquid snacks out of a pouch rather than eating it properly with a spoon.

Dr Hashem added: ‘We are keen to see and support the Government in developing mandatory guidelines on the free sugar content of infant foods for under-twos to encourage reformulation of baby food, including commercial weaning foods, supporting greater exposure of babies to a wider range of tastes, rather than predominantly sweet flavours.’

The chief executive of Ella’s Kitchen, Mark Cuddigan, said: ‘While we don’t add any sugar to our pouches, we are actively taking steps to reduce the natural sugar content of our highest sugar stage one products, by including fruits lower in sugar.’  

Declan O’Brien, the director general of the British Specialist Nutrition Association, said: ‘BSNA members wholeheartedly support measures to improve infant health and have been working with Public Health England to reformulate the content of products.

‘Baby food products are already tightly regulated and are tailored to meet the specific needs of young children. 

‘At the same time, BSNA member companies are always working to improve their products and labelling.’ 

The full Public Health England report is online here.   

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