(CNN) — The baby food section of U.S. supermarkets is full of nutrient-poor foods that contain far too much sugar and salt and misleading advertising claims, a new study has found.
Sixty percent of 651 foods sold in 10 U.S. supermarkets for children ages 6 to 36 months did not meet the World Health Organization’s recommended nutritional guidelines for infant and young child formula, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Nutrients.
Almost none of the foods met all WHO standards for advertising, which require clear labelling of ingredients and accurate health information.
The researchers found that 70 percent of all products examined did not meet WHO guidelines regarding protein content and 25 percent did not meet calorie recommendations. One in five baby or toddler foods contained a salt content above the limits recommended by the organization.
A quarter of the products contained added or hidden sweeteners, and 44 percent of baby and toddler foods exceeded WHO recommendations for total sugar content, said lead study author Dr. Elizabeth Dunford, adjunct assistant professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Research suggests that 50 percent of the sugar consumed in infant formula comes from pouches, and we found that these are among the worst offenders,” says Dunford, who is also a research fellow at the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, which developed the FoodSwitch app, which provides nutritional information on thousands of products around the world.
According to the study, sales of baby food pouches in the US have increased by 900 percent over the past 13 years, making pouches one of the fastest-growing market segments.
Added sweeteners in baby food pouches
The rising demand is understandable because the ease of use and convenience of pouches can make them irresistible to overworked, stressed parents and caregivers, said Dr. Mark Corkins, the St. Jude Endowed Chair of Excellence in Pediatric Gastroenterology at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. He was not involved in the new study.
“These bags are very concerning,” said Corkins, who also chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics’ nutrition committee.
“Children need to learn to chew, so they should eat regular fruit, not pureed, sweetened stuff from a bag,” he said. “Often these mixes are not natural and are much sweeter than real fruit, so the child is taught to only like super-sweet things.”
Then there is the question of texture, which must be learned at a critical age, Corkins added.
“We advise parents to gradually increase the texture of foods between 6 months and one year when introducing real foods,” Corkins said. “If you don’t expose children to a variety of textures and more chewing during this critical period, they may develop texture aversion and reject anything but smooth, pureed foods.”
CNN contacted several industry associations representing various baby food manufacturers but did not receive a response prior to publication.
Lack of guidelines for infant and young child nutrition
The study examined over 650 products from the baby food aisle of ten major U.S. supermarkets in 2023. Dairy products or other refrigerated foods marketed to children were not analyzed.
The names and brands of the foods were not disclosed in the study.
The researchers applied nutritional and advertising recommendations for commercially produced infant and young child formulas prepared by the WHO Regional Office for Europe in 2022. The WHO recommendations are an attempt to address the global mess in nutritional advice for infant and young child formulas, which experts say is even worse in the United States than in other Western countries.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued regulations on infant formula and arsenic levels in baby formula and makes recommendations on food safety and handling.
“Are there specific regulations for infant and young child foods in different countries? The short answer is no, but in Europe, the UK, New Zealand and Australia, where I come from, there are more comprehensive regulations about how ingredients can be listed on packaging that also affect foods given to children,” Dunford said.
For example, if a savory food is 10 percent spinach, 8 percent beef and 2 percent potatoes, and the majority of the product is apples or pears – often used as sweeteners in baby food – the name of the product in those countries would be “pear, spinach, beef and potato cake,” she said.
Manufacturers in these countries are also required to clearly label percentages such as “spinach (10%), beef (8%) and potatoes (2%), so it’s clear how much pear or apple is in it,” Dunford said. “But in the U.S., there are no such regulations, so it’s harder to understand what’s in the products you’re buying.”
Such hidden sweeteners may be a major reason why only 31 percent of the fruit-free bags met WHO recommendations for total sugar content, Dunford said.
Misleading advertising
Almost all (99.4 percent) of the 651 products examined contained at least one advertising claim that was prohibited by WHO recommendations. On average, the products contained four to five such claims, some even had up to 13, the study found.
Common claims included “non-GMO” (70%), “organic” (59%), “BPA (Bisphenol A) free” (37%) and “no artificial colors or flavors” (25%). The WHO frowns upon such claims because they may give consumers the impression that the product is more nutritious than the one next to it on the shelf, which Dunford says may or may not be true.
“The reason we call the baby food aisle the Wild West is because manufacturers can pick and choose which elements of their product they want to highlight,” Dunford said. “They certainly don’t highlight the bad stuff, do they? If their product has a lot of sugar, they just put ‘no added colors or flavors’ on the label.”
In countries like Australia, she added, the nutrition of ingredients must meet a minimum nutrient profile: if a food or drink does not meet a certain nutritional standard, the manufacturer is not entitled to make specific health claims about that ingredient.
“For example, if the product does not meet the minimum nutritional requirements for calcium, the label cannot list added calcium,” Dunford said.
The researchers found that about 62 percent of the products examined contained general health and nutritional information and 58 percent contained information about specific ingredients.
“Snacks and finger foods often refer to fruit or vegetables in the product name, even though they are made primarily from flour or other starches,” said study co-author Dr. Daisy Coyle, research fellow and nutritionist at the George Institute for Global Health.
“The lack of regulation in this area opens the door for the food industry to deceive busy parents,” Coyle said in a statement.
According to experts, such claims create a “health halo” around these baby food products.
“One of the biggest concerns with baby and toddler food is the often fictitious health claims on the front of products,” said Corkins. “Some of these are obvious, some are implicit, and they can mislead parents and guardians.”
“Concerned, well-meaning parents read claims like ‘healthy’ and nutritious and will not only buy these products but will also spend more money on them because of those claims,” he said.
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