Imma Perfetto
Cosmos science journalist
There is an urgent need to regulate deceptive labelling and improve nutritional quality in the rapidly growing commercial food market for babies and toddlers in Australia.
An analysis of food products for children aged 6-36 months sold in Australian supermarkets in 2022 found that all fail to meet World Health Organization recommendations for product promotion on their labels.
Pouches are by far the worst offenders with the highest use of prohibited health and nutrition claims. This is concerning, given pouches have experienced rapid growth in the infant and toddler food market and currently make up more than half of all products in Australia.
The study, published in Maternal and Child Nutrition, also found that 78% of available food products fail to meet WHO nutritional requirements, mainly due to excess energy and sugar.
Lead author Dr Elizabeth Dunford of The George Institute for Global Health in Australia, says that consuming excess calories in early years sets children up for obesity in later life and the early introduction of highly sweetened foods drives lifelong taste preferences.
“Time-poor parents are looking for convenience, but most would be shocked by industry’s deceptive marketing tactics suggesting products are healthier than they are, that are rife across this category,” she says.
“They would probably also be surprised to know that regulatory safeguards to protect children from exposure to unhealthy food marketing are currently very limited.”
The researchers assessed 309 infant and toddler food products in The George Institute’s FoodSwitch database against the WHO Regional Office for Europe’s Nutrient and Promotion Profile Model (NPPM).
They found that more than one‐third of products exceed total sugar recommendations.
All products failed to meet the ‘no prohibited claims’ on labels and other marketing materials, which is a requirement of the NPPM. Prohibited claims include statements like “free from colours and flavours”, “organic” and “no added sugar”.
“We found the average number of prohibited claims in this category was 5.6 – in one case, we saw 21 different prohibited claims on a single product,” says Dunford.
Dr Daisy Coyle, dietitian and Research Fellow at The George Institute adds that the use of health and nutrition content claims and wellness messaging on infant and toddler foods was concerning.
“These claims are commonly used on unhealthy products and can contribute to a ‘health halo’ effect, leading consumers to believe they are healthy,” she says.
“And all too often we see products highlight what they don’t have, such as ‘no gluten’, or ‘no additives’, rather than what they do contain such as high levels of added sugars.
“We know these claims and messages influence what parents buy for infants and toddlers in the critical early years. The food industry is essentially setting the foundations for unhealthy eating later in life and this situation urgently requires regulation.
“We’d want to see a more comprehensive approach to addressing key drivers of chronic disease from infancy. The long-term health of future generations depends on it.”
Australia and New Zealand share a joint system for food labelling which is overseen by Food Ministers. A public consultation into improving commercial foods for infants and children in Australia and New Zealand launched earlier this month closes 13 September.
