Sugar Awareness Week: Health experts warn UK’s political chaos derails infant nutrition regulation

16 Nov 2022 --- A survey on breakfast cereals marketed to infants and toddlers in the UK has prompted nutrition and health experts at Action on Sugar (AoS) to decry the amount of sugar included in what is supposed to be the “most important meal of the day.”

The organization is asking the current government to adopt and mandate the guidelines it laid out over two years ago. These guidelines could limit the amounts of sugar allowed in children’s food items, and also prevent the use of labels such as “no added sugar” and “only naturally occurring sugar,” which AoS states can give parents a false sense of healthiness.

“We are baffled as to why the government has failed to publish the Commercial Baby Food and Drink Guidelines that it consulted on in 2020,” Hattie Burt, nutritionist and policy and communications officer at Action on Sugar, tells NutritionInsight. “Misleading nutrition and health claims must be banned on all infant food and drink products – simple as that.”

However, she contends that: “It seems to us that multiple changes in government leadership and other political chaos have gotten in the way of introducing better regulation of baby and toddler foods, and irresponsible food manufacturers are taking advantage of that.”

Candy: It’s what’s for breakfast
According to the survey, which analyzed the sugar and nutritional content of over 98 breakfast items marketed for babies and toddlers at ten different stores, the sugar content of many items approached the same levels as of candy. Some of the infant and toddler breakfast products contained as much sugar as a serving of gummy bears.

The most egregious item, Ella’s Kitchen Banana, Apple and blueberry Baby Rice – marketed for consumption of children over four months old – was found to contain 14.5 g of sugar per pouch. This amount is the equivalent of feeding a baby one-third of a standard-size bag of Skittles or 13 Haribo Gummy Bears.

The AoS explains that in 2016 the government challenged the food industry to reduce the amount of sugars in some foods by 20% but did not include infant and toddler foods in its list of categories. Instead, it released a draft of the Commercial Baby Food and Drink Guidelines for consultation but never actually implemented them. 

The organization notes that the current high levels of obesity and tooth decay in children stresses the need for government intervention.

“If there were ever a case for strong regulation, it is in the infant food sector, which is why it’s madness that these products are excluded from so many public health initiatives,” Burt stresses. 

“It is troubling that companies producing infant food are willing to produce and market products that are not safe or appropriate for that age group.” 

“The government has a prime opportunity here to publish the Commercial Baby Food and Drink Guidelines and ensure that infant food is safe, nutritious and appropriately marketed.”

Mislabeling the issue
Besides the problem of high sugar content in infant and toddler breakfast foods, AoS holds that another problem is the front-of-pack (FOP) health claims regarding sugar content made by many of the companies. Of the over 100 products analyzed, all of them used health claims and 86% of them had the “no added sugar” claim.

Moreover, some companies were found to be using the “only natural ingredients” and “sugar from a natural source” labels though they were using plain sugar in the labeled products, which the AoS says they are not legally permitted to claim.

“We know phrases like ‘no added sugar’ and ‘naturally occurring sugars’ mislead parents and carers into thinking products are healthy, when the reality is that they are packed full of sugar,” Burt explains. “The government’s own guidance states that no added sugars, including those from processed fruit, should be consumed by children up to the age of two years old, so banning these misleading claims on processed fruit products for infants is an obvious next step.”

Who pays?Experts warn that failure to address sugars and labeling now could have severe repercussions for the NHS.
Burt and AoS further highlight the effects these mislabeling can have – not only on infant and toddler health but on society as a whole. Especially when considering the burden that cavities, obesity and other noncommunicable diseases will place on the country’s National Healthcare System.

Earlier this year, the Food Foundation published a report revealing that nutrition has gotten so bad in the UK it is causing stunting in some children and further revealed that the incidence of overweight and obesity costs £74 billion (US$88.7 billion) a year if you add the loss of workforce productivity to the cost of health care. 

A separate report by the Cancer Research UK found that one in ten of UK adults will be obese by 2040. Additionally, other groups like the Children’s Food Campaign, have pointed out that obese children often become obese adults.

“If the government is serious about stemming the flow of patients into the NHS, it needs to make prevention a priority, and that starts at the very beginning with infant health,” Burt remarks. “We are always hopeful that the government will take action, and we know that some people within the government are taking this seriously, but it shouldn’t be such a struggle to get children’s health top of the agenda.”

“The most effective public health policies are those that encompass a range of different measures – the government must stop turning a blind eye to irresponsible practices in the infant food sector, and instead introduce better regulation to fix this broken market,” she concludes. 

“As part of a comprehensive strategy, the government must also mandate sugar content on FOP [labels] and introduce targets for maximum sugar levels in these products to incentivize food manufacturers to reduce sugar content.”

“That said, responsible manufacturers will surely not wait for government regulation to make these changes, but instead take the opportunity to show they are committed to making products that are suitable for infants and genuinely low in sugar, not just appearing to be.”

By William Bradford Nichols