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Misleading nutrition in early years food and drink

4 mins read Children's dentistry Diet and nutrition
New research by Action on Sugar (based at the Queen Mary University of London) has revealed worrying levels of sugars have been added unnecessarily to breakfast foods intended for babies and toddlers, with some containing four teaspoons of sugar per pouch. That’s despite government guidance that no added sugars, including those from processed fruit, should be consumed by children up to two years old.

To mark Sugar Awareness Week (November 14-20, 2022), Action on Sugar is calling on the complete removal of misleading nutrition and health claims on baby and toddler food and drink products and urging the new health minister, Steve Barclay, to publish and mandate the overdue Commercial baby food and drink guidelines. This will ensure dedicated baby aisles in supermarkets are a ‘safe space’ for parents.

The product survey, which analysed nearly 100 baby and toddler breakfast items sold in stores, found Kitchen’s ‘Banana, apple and blueberry baby rice’ had the highest sugar per serve, with 14.5g sugars per pouch (equivalent to four teaspoons sugar). This was followed by Ella’s Kitchen’s ‘Banana baby brekkie’ (13.6g per serve) and Ella’s Kitchen ‘Bananas, apricots and baby rice’ (13.5g Ella’s per serve).

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