WHO Alarms For High Sugar Content In Baby Foods

If there’s one thing in this world which humans care the most is often their infants. And when it comes to choosing the food that they are going to feed them makes them superconscious.

In an attempt to improve infant diets, United Nations (UN) proposed new guidelines on July 15. According to the report, commercial baby foods normally possess high sugar content with confusing ingredient lists.   

Further, the World Health Organisation seeks an end to the promotion of breast milk substitutes and urges parents to feed their children ageing between six months to two years with home-made nutritious foods. It solicits a complete ban on added sugars in food products for infants of up to 36 months.  

In the press release Who stated, “WHO’s long-standing recommendation states that children should be breastfed, exclusively, for the first 6 months.” Dr João Breda, Head of the WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases said “Foods for infants and young children are expected to comply with various established nutrition and compositional recommendations. Nonetheless, there are concerns that many products may still be too high in sugars.”   

“Good nutrition in infancy and early childhood remains key to ensuring optimal child growth and development, and to better health outcomes later in life – including the prevention of overweight, obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) – thereby making United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages much more achievable,” says Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe.  

The WHO report inspected around 7955 products from four different countries. The inspection started in November 2017 examined 516 stores in Austria, Israel, Hungary and Bulgaria and ended in January 2018.  

In 3 of the cities, half or more of the products provided over 30% of the calories from total sugars. Around a third of the products listed sugar, concentrated fruit juice or other sweetening agents as an ingredient. These added flavours and sugars could affect the development of children’s taste preferences by increasing their liking for sweeter foods.  

The WHO also highlighted that although foods such as fruits and vegetables that naturally contain sugars are appropriate for infants and young children, the very high level of free sugars in puréed commercial products also causes for concern.  

Also, WHO developed a draft Nutrient Profile Model (NPM) for children aged 6–36 months to guide decisions about which foods are inappropriate for promotion for this age group. This was put forward to the Member States and stakeholders for consideration and further discussion.