Almost two-thirds of baby foods sold in U.S. grocery stores are unhealthy, a new study has found.
The research was conducted by The George Institute for Global Health and published in the scientific journal Nutrients.
The study found that 60% of infant and toddler foods in U.S. supermarkets do not meet nutritional requirements nor promotional requirements defined by the World Health Organization.
To conduct the study, researchers evaluated over 650 baby and toddler food products sold at 10 popular U.S. grocery stores.
The findings uncovered that 70% of the products failed to meet protein requirements, and 44% surpassed total sugar requirements.
The research showed 1 in 4 products did not meet calorie requirements, and 1 in 5 had higher-than-recommended sodium levels.
Dr. Elizabeth Dunford, research fellow at The George Institute, said she was concerned about the rising popularity of these processed baby foods due to convenience.
“Early childhood is a crucial period of rapid growth and when taste preferences and dietary habits form, potentially paving the way for the development of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and some cancers later in life,” Dunford said in a press release.
“Time-poor parents are increasingly choosing convenience foods, unaware that many of these products lack key nutrients needed for their child’s development, and tricked into believing they are healthier than they really are.”
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The fastest growing infant and baby food products are food pouches. The sector has seen a 900% increase in the proportion of sales from pouches in the last 13 years, the research said. But these pouches are among the most unhealthy products evaluated in the study.
Less than 7% of the studied food pouches met total sugar recommendations, the research showed.
The study also pointed out failures in marketing.
More than 99% of products studied had at least one prohibited claim on their packaging. On average, products featured about four prohibited claims on their packaging, saying the foods were “non genetically modified” had “no artificial colors/flavors,” or were “organic," for example.
Dr. Daisy Coyle, a research fellow and dietitian at The George Institute, said the claims are likely to deceive busy parents.
“We saw this not only in the use of misleading claims but also in the use of misleading names, where the product name did not reflect the main ingredients found on the ingredient list,” Coyle said.
“For example, snack and finger foods often referred to fruit or vegetables in the product name, despite primarily being made of flour or other starches,” she continued.
This comes as obesity in children has more than doubled in the U.S. since the 1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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