Commercial baby foods crisis revealed by Leeds research

The UK’s baby food market is awash with “low quality” products with poor nutrition masked by misleading names and on-pack messaging, according to nutrition researchers.

Weak and outdated regulations are letting down families and children, the researchers say, and they are now calling for government action on the market.

A new report launched today – “Commercial Baby Foods in Crisis” – builds on work that started in 2018.

This year-long project, funded by The Which? Fund, assessed 632 baby food products marketed towards babies and toddlers under three years old, evaluating their nutrition and on-pack marketing; alongside gathering views from over 1000 parents via a nationally representative survey and focus groups.

The work was carried out by Dr Diane Threapleton, Ali Morpeth and Professor Janet Cade from the School of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Leeds.

Dr Threapleton said: “Babies and toddlers are in a period of rapid and important growth, and good nutrition is needed to support their development. It is therefore critical that commercial products are nutritious options, not laden with sugar. Voluntary guidelines are often ineffective, and so regulation is needed to make sure that change happens.”

“With around 1.7m children between six and 36 months in the UK, ‘baby food’ is a massive market. Widespread availability of inappropriate products with poor nutritional quality will negatively impact child growth and development.”

Babies and toddlers are in a period of rapid and important growth and good nutrition is needed to support their development.

Dr Diane Threapleton, School of Food Science and Nutrition

The research featured in a BBC Panorama investigation into baby food pouches, broadcast on Monday, April 28, but the wider report looks at the whole baby food market, including tray meals, snacks and other products.

A group of parents and young children sitting on the floor, talking to researchers about baby food products while being filmed

The research features in a BBC Panorama investigation. Image: University of Leeds

The products were analysed using the World Health Organisation standards (Nutrient and Promotion Profile Model). Key findings include:

More than half of snack products contain added sugars
41% of main meals were too sweet and had high sugar levels
Fruit-based purees are high in ‘released’ sugars, and 89% of fruit products should carry a ‘high sugar’ warning label according to international recommendations
21% of ready-to-eat fruit products, cereals, and meals were too watery, not providing adequate nutrition
Pouches with spouts make up over a third of the baby foods market (38%) and around half did not include a recommendation not to let children drink via the spout
On-pack messaging often masked poor nutrition or supported the ‘health halo’ of making foods appear to be healthy or ideal choices.

Key parent insights (from focus groups and a survey of 1008 parents of children aged under 3 years):

Families rely on commercial baby and toddler foods, with 47% using these ‘always’ or ‘most of the time’
Parents were shocked to learn that baby foods are poorly regulated, with no limits on sugar levels
7 in 10 parents agree with front-of-pack warning labels for high sugar baby foods
59% of parents were concerned about high levels of naturally occurring sugars
56% of parents report difficulty in identifying healthier products using the packet information

Implications for families

Dr Threapleton said: “We found the baby food market is packed with low quality products where poor nutrition is often masked by misleading names and on-pack messaging. This is letting families down.

“Parents expect bought baby foods to be well-regulated and healthy for their young children.”

The research found that large numbers of commonly available and popular baby purees are high in sugary pureed fruit. Confusingly, many are also too watery (low in calories), therefore not providing young children with the nutrition they need.

Dr Threapleton added: “Commercial baby foods are often highly pureed. When the main ingredients are fruit, this poses a particular problem because the sugar that would be contained within the food matrix, and therefore slowly digested, becomes readily available in the mouth. This means that pureed baby foods taste very sweet, strengthening preferences for sugary foods throughout life, and teeth are being exposed to high levels of sugar.

A baby sitting at a highchair with vegetable sticks on the tray in front of them, seen from above

Image: Adobe Stock

Dr Threapleton added: “We know that many parents and carers rely on these commercial baby foods, and in the UK they are so widely available as to be almost unavoidable.”

Policy black hole

Ali Morpeth, a registered public health nutritionist and co-author of the study, said baby food regulations are “seriously outdated”.

She added: “We spoke to more than 1000 parents in our research. Many were shocked to learn that there are no regulations for sugar in baby foods, and there was widespread support for front-of-pack labels to indicate high sugar content.

“Voluntary standards are notoriously ineffective in driving industry change for public health, so we believe the government must set mandatory regulations to improve the market for babies.”

“We want manufacturers and retailers to improve the way they formulate and market these products, making the health and nutrition of our youngest children their top priority.”

Parents... were shocked to learn that there are no regulations for sugar in baby foods

Ali Morpeth, School of Food Science and Nutrition

“We also believe the Government should be stepping in with regulations, so that anyone caring for young children can have confidence that the products they can access are giving their children the best possible start in life.”

Misleading marketing

The research also highlights widespread use of “halo marketing” – the practice of using vague but misleading messaging to give products an appearance of health, masking concerns about their actual composition.

For example:

Stating ‘no added sugar’ when most of the calories are from sugar
Claiming to be ‘nutritionally balanced’, which is meaningless
Claiming ‘immune support’ when the food contains some vitamin C
Claiming to be the ‘ideal’ way to feed your little one, undermining simple home-prepared foods

The researchers are urging the UK Government to follow WHO advice and ban all nutrition, health or marketing claims on baby food packaging in order to eliminate the “health-halo” effect and help families make the best choices for their children based on accurate information.

Recommendations for positive change

Professor Cade leads the Nutritional Epidemiology Group at the University of Leeds and chairs the advisory board of the British Nutrition Foundation in a voluntary capacity. She, Dr Threapleton and Ali Morpeth worked with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to draw up a Nutrient and Promotion Profile Model (NPPM) which set out nutritional and marketing standards for baby foods.

They are urging the UK Government to adopt this ready-made tool in order to bring up standards in the baby food market.

Professor Cade added: “We need to help parents to protect young children because we know that diet in early life sets the scene for later health outcomes.

“Poor diet in the first years of life has been linked with higher rates of chronic disease, including diabetes and obesity.

Our research clearly shows that the current situation needs to change. Existing regulations are insufficient and outdated.

Policy recommendations include:

Regulations to set maximum total sugar levels for both meals and snacks
Front-of-pack indicators for high levels of sugar
Maximum sugar and fat levels along with minimum protein levels for meals
Product names to accurately reflect their contents, and ingredients lists to present proportions of main components including water and fruit
A ban on products marketed as suitable for babies under six months

Specific recommendations to manufacturers and retailers include:

To produce fewer fruit products in favour of savoury meals that provide more rounded nutrition
Use healthy ingredients like grains, protein sources and vegetables rather than high quantities of fruit puree
Clearer packaging and labelling with no misleading statements like ‘no added sugar’ on products that have high sugar content

Advice for parents

Dr Threapleton and Ali Morpeth have produced information for parents, including a list of “simple swaps” to improve young children’s nutrition in a realistic and achievable way. They include:

Giving babies and children homemade food wherever possible
Swapping fruit pouches or jars, or fruity baby porridge at breakfast for normal porridge, natural yoghurt, whole or sliced fruit, or wholemeal toast
Going for savoury options or whole meals, or choosing vegetable puree instead of high fruit products
Offering soft pieces of fruit or other foods to help children learn to chew
Opting for fruit or vegetable sticks, crackers, toast or oatcakes with toppings like nut butter, cream cheese or hummus instead of cereal bars, fruit chews or ‘melty’ snacks
Not introducing food before six months and moving away from super smooth products once babies can handle more texture

Sue Davies, Which? Head of Food Policy said: "It's unacceptable that so many foods and snacks aimed at babies have such poor nutritional quality and high sugar levels.

“To make matters worse, these items are often misleadingly marketed as being healthy, making it difficult for parents to make informed choices about the best products to buy for their children.

“The Government urgently needs to update the out-of-date laws for commercial baby foods to ensure there are tighter controls on their composition - including limits on their sugar and salt content – make labelling clear and upfront and clamp down on any misleading marketing claims that suggest products are healthier than they really are.”

Let’s put babies and toddlers at the forefront of our efforts to create the healthiest ever generation of children and stop sugarcoating these pouches and products

Barbara Crowther, Children's Food Campaign Manager at Sustain

Barbara Crowther, Children’s Food Campaign Manager at Sustain, who supported the parent polling as part of the research, said: “All babies and children have a right to grow up healthy, but overwhelmingly the commercial baby and toddler food industry is misleading parents about the nutritional benefits of their products. Millions of parents regularly use these brands and want to trust them, so they’re shocked and angry to learn the truth – that they’re not nearly as healthy as they claim to be, and they’re not even being regulated properly.

“This excellent but shocking new analysis from the University of Leeds should be a wake-up call to the government – it’s time to wean ourselves off a reliance on voluntary guidance for the infant food industry and bring in strict regulation, based on the excellent World Health Organisation standards for product composition and marketing of infant foods. Let’s put babies and toddlers at the forefront of our efforts to create the healthiest ever generation of children and stop sugarcoating these pouches and products.”