Sugars in baby

& toddler foods

A CHOICE survey found that over half of all toddler snack foods contained sugars that they should be limiting or avoiding in their diets, including fruit juice concentrate, fruit paste, fruit powder, sugar and syrups.

Food brands often promote these foods with claims of being ‘natural, ‘organic’, ‘made with real fruit’.

Don’t be sweet talked.

Processed food companies know that when people see the word ‘fruit’ they think ‘health’. So, they plaster it all over the packaging, and it works. In fact, three-quarters of Australian parents say they are more likely to choose kids’ food with a fruit image on the pack.

But the ‘fruit’ that is in many of these products is nothing like real, whole fruit. Instead, they actually contain a sticky, sugary paste or concentrate, extracted from fruit but without all the same goodness. This is done by sieving it, boiling it, and removing all its water, until it is barely more than a pile of sugar. See how this is done to a simple wholesome apple.

There are more than 60
different names for sugar

Sugar can hide under many names on the ingredients list of a product including dextrose, fruit concentrate, fruit juice and molasses, but sugar is sugar, no matter where it’s from or what marketing spin it’s hiding behind.

We’re calling for improved sugar labelling to make it easier to identify all sugars consumers should be limiting or avoiding in their diets. This includes:

Defining added sugar to include all sugars that consumers should be limiting or avoiding in their diets, including sugars extracted from fruit
Listing added sugar as a separate line item on the nutrition information panel

Read more about our position on mandatory added sugar labelling here.

Ready-made baby and toddler foods should promote good health and good dietary habits.

All children deserve the best start in life, ensuring they can grow and develop in the healthiest way possible. The first three years of life are a critical opportunity to support and encourage healthy dietary habits and good nutrition and to prevent overweight and obesity and other diet related non-communicable diseases. It is also a period in which the palate is developed, and lifelong tastes, habits and food preferences are established.

Despite this, less than one in five 2-3-year-old children eat the recommended daily vegetable intake, and over half consume free sugars above the recommended intake. A Royal Children’s Hospital National Child Health Poll run in July 2021 ( RCH Poll) found that 45% of children between 4-36 months of age are eating ready-made and toddler foods at least two to three times a week. For around two in five children, ready-made baby and toddler foods make up at least half or more of their meals and snacks, and for 15% of children these foods make up most or all of their dietary intake. Given the high levels of consumption of these foods consideration must be given to the composition of these foods and whether they reflect optimal nutrition in the early years of life.

The processed food industry uses ingredients high in sugar in foods for babies and toddlers.

There is a growing concern that some ready-made baby and toddler foods are undermining work to promote optimal nutrition.

Survey data released by CHOICE in August 2021 showed that 58 per cent of ready-made toddler foods contain sugars that they should be limiting or avaoiding in their diet, 45 per cent of which contain sugar in high amounts. This is consistent with Food for Health Alliance research from 2019. The study looked at both baby and toddler foods and found that 75 per cent of products reviewed contained sugars that are harmful to health, with concentrated fruit sugars like fruit juice concentrate, fruit paste and fruit powder featuring in 47 per cent of products and pure sugar or syrups in 31 per cent of products.

Comprehensive regulation of the composition of baby and toddler foods will protect our youngest Australians.

The food regulatory system must ensure that all foods marketed for babies and toddlers are of high nutritional quality and meet strong, evidence-based standards on composition.

Strong standards already exist in some areas, for example in limiting sodium in foods for babies. This mandatory protection can, and should, be expanded to protect both babies and toddlers, and to include strong limits to stop manufacturers adding sugars that babies and toddlers should be avoiding or limiting in their diets. Parents agree. Nine out of ten parents surveyed in the RCH Poll think there should be laws to limit the amount of sugars in baby and toddler foods.

The government must take responsibility for protecting babies and toddlers from ready-made foods that do not promote good health and good dietary habits.

Recommendations

Reforms must be led and developed by government, and not voluntary bodies dominated by industry representatives, like the Healthy Food Partnership.

Regulation to improve the composition of baby and toddler foods should ensure that:

Sugars that babies should be limiting or avoiding in their diets should not be used in baby and toddler foods
Sweet snacks and confectionary should not be marketed as suitable for babies and toddlers

In addition to the compositional elements, labelling regulation should ensure that all sugars that should be limited or avoided in the diet are easily identified.

Sugars in baby

& toddler foods

Learn more

Labelling of baby & toddler foods

Promotion of baby and toddler foods

Added Sugar Labelling