Commercial foods for early childhood – Australia and New Zealand

This paper covers the makeup and availability of commercial food for infants and young children in Australia.

Findings include:

• Commercial foods often use sweet flavours for ‘meals’. This creates issues for setting the palate and lifelong tastes.
• Commercial infant foods may contribute a lot of sugar to the diet. They often use processed fruit products and sugar to sweeten goods.
• Serving sizes are often far larger than recommended in the Australian Dietary Guidelines. Large servings promote overeating. It also increases the amount of sugar consumed.
• Pouches are the main packaging for meals for children up to 8 months. This reduces babies' chances for optimal physical and cognitive development. It means they don't experience as many different textures.
• Some baby food labels do not reflect the main ingredients. This may mislead caregivers about the foods they are choosing.
• While some finger-food products contain added salt, overall salt was not a concern.
• Yoghurt pouches marketed to children often contain added sugar. Some recipes have been changed to reduce sugar.