A team of public health experts from the George Institute for Global Health at the University of New South Wales found that about 60% of ready-to-eat infant and toddler foods sold in the US do not meet international nutritional standards.
In their paper published in the journal Nutrients, the group describes how they analyzed nutritional data for 651 baby and toddler food products sold by the eight largest US supermarket chains in the US and what they found when they compared the data to internationally recognized dietary recommendations.
The researchers' work on this new venture began when they realized that despite parental concern about the growing popularity and health effects of commercial foods marketed for babies and toddlers, there are currently no government nutritional guidelines in the United States. This made them think about the nutritional value of these foods.
To learn more, they traveled to the US and purchased 669 toddler and baby products from eight of the most popular grocery chains in Raleigh, North Carolina. They then scanned the barcodes of each of the food products using FoodSwitch to get a list of the ingredients and nutrition facts for each of the products studied.
They then compared the nutritional value that an infant or young child would receive by consuming the products with the nutritional standards set by the World Health Organization in 2022.
In reviewing the data, the research team found that about 60% of the food products studied did not meet the dietary recommendations. Specifically, they found that 70% of them did not meet protein recommendations and that 44% of them contained more sugar than recommended. In addition, approximately 25% of them do not meet the requirements for the required minimum calories. I BGNES
60% of US baby foods do not meet WHO standards
A team of public health experts from the George Institute for Global Health at the University of New South Wales found that about 60% of ready-to-eat infant and toddler foods sold in the US do not meet international nutritional standards.
In their paper published in the journal Nutrients, the group describes how they analyzed nutritional data for 651 baby and toddler food products sold by the eight largest US supermarket chains in the US and what they found when they compared the data to internationally recognized dietary recommendations.
The researchers' work on this new venture began when they realized that despite parental concern about the growing popularity and health effects of commercial foods marketed for babies and toddlers, there are currently no government nutritional guidelines in the United States. This made them think about the nutritional value of these foods.
To learn more, they traveled to the US and purchased 669 toddler and baby products from eight of the most popular grocery chains in Raleigh, North Carolina. They then scanned the barcodes of each of the food products using FoodSwitch to get a list of the ingredients and nutrition facts for each of the products studied.
They then compared the nutritional value that an infant or young child would receive by consuming the products with the nutritional standards set by the World Health Organization in 2022.
In reviewing the data, the research team found that about 60% of the food products studied did not meet the dietary recommendations. Specifically, they found that 70% of them did not meet protein recommendations and that 44% of them contained more sugar than recommended. In addition, approximately 25% of them do not meet the requirements for the required minimum calories. I BGNES
