Poor nutrition and misleading marketing: the truth about commercial baby foods in Australia

Adequate nutrition in early childhood provides the foundation for optimal child health and development. The dietary practices that are formed during these early years set a pattern of eating behaviours that continues throughout childhood and beyond. Getting these foundations right is especially important considering most Australian children consume unhealthy diets. Around one-third of the daily energy in children’s diets comes from unhealthy or discretionary foods, and almost all Australian children fall short on meeting the recommended intake of vegetables each day.

One in three (31%) Australian children aged up to five years eat commercial ready-made foods at least once a week, and one in five (19%) eat these products most days of the week. Commercial foods for infants and toddlers represent a growing market in Australia. In 2023, sales of these products including cereals, purees and snacks generated over $370 million in revenue. The widespread availability and consumption of commercial foods for infants and toddlers underscores the importance of ensuring these products meet stringent nutrition and promotion standards.

Applying the WHO Nutrient and Promotion Profile Model

We conducted a comprehensive assessment of commercial foods for infants and toddlers against the World Health Organization Nutrient and Promotion Profile Model (NPPM). The NPPM provides guidance on the nutrient composition and promotion of food products for infants and young children aged from 6 to 36 months. The NPPM sets criteria for nutrient content, labelling and marketing practices to ensure that products support healthy growth and development throughout early childhood. The NPPM also offers a tool that can be used to assess commercial products in the food supply chain.

We applied the NPPM tool to a sample of foods for infants and toddlers available in Australian supermarkets. The results of our analysis were alarming. Fewer than one in four products (23%) met all the nutrient content requirements set by the NPPM. Of particular concern, 43% of these products exceeded the recommended limits for sugar, with processed fruit sugars (in the form of fruit juice, pastes, purees) a common source. In early childhood, sugar intake should be avoided including sugars extracted from fruit, due to increased risk of overweight and obesity and dental caries, and an increased preference for sweet-tasting foods.

Sugar content was especially problematic in products packaged in a pouch with a spout. In our analysis, only 25% of products in pouches met the NPPM criteria for total sugar. This indicates that most pouches offer sweet-tasting purees, limiting the variety of flavour profiles and textures that children are exposed to. Of further concern, only one in five products in a pouch (19%) met the requirement to provide instructions not to consume the product directly from the spout.

Over half of the products (60%) that we assessed did not meet the NPPM criteria for product name clarity. The NPPM recommends that a product’s name lists the main ingredients in descending order to accurately reflect the contents within. Accurate product names are also important to ensure that sweet tastes and high fruit content are not hidden by omission from the product name.

In our study, every product assessed displayed at least one promotional marketing claim that was not permitted under the NPPM criteria. Claims commonly draw attention to health or child development such as “natural”, “organic”, “no added sugar”, “for little fingers”. These claims give parents the impression that products are healthy and an ideal choice for their young children. Yet as our research has shown, these products are often high in sugar and lack the variety of textures and flavours necessary to support the optimal development of feeding skills.

The extensive use of marketing claims on foods for infants and toddlers was also demonstrated in our earlier research, where we observed up to 15 unique marketing features on a single package. This included graphics and imagery targeted towards children and appeals to health and nutrition targeted towards parents. We know that parents rely on product labels to make informed decisions when choosing food for their children. Misleading marketing creates the perception that products are more healthy than they really are and undermines parents’ intentions to feed their children a healthy diet.

A call for stronger regulations

The findings of this study highlight an urgent need for stronger regulation of commercial foods for infants and toddlers in Australia. Fortunately, there are promising signs on the horizon. The Australian Department of Health and Aged Care recently held a public consultation on improving commercial foods for infants and young children. This presents a critical opportunity for the government to develop and implement comprehensive, mandatory regulations that improve the composition, labelling and promotion of commercial foods for infants and toddlers in Australia. Policy reform is necessary to ensure commercial foods meet the highest possible standards to protect the diets and health of Australia’s youngest children.

Dr Alexandra Chung is an accredited practising dietitian and senior lecturer in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University. She currently holds a VicHealth postdoctoral research fellowship and is an executive committee member of the Infant and Toddler Foods Research Alliance.