20%, or the percentage of baby food marketed in Spain that meets the nutritional criteria established by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to the first nutritional composition table of baby food prepared in the country, created by researchers from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), the Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili (IISPV) and the Collegi de Dietistes-Nutricionistes de Catalunya, and published in the scientific journal European Journal of Paediatrics.
The table includes detailed nutritional information on 850 products from 42 brands available in major Spanish supermarkets. The objective is to make available to dietetics, nutrition or pediatrics professionals “a reliable and updated source” on the composition of these foods in order to evaluate nutrition in the first years of life and offer recommendations that promote a healthier and more sustainable diet.
The results of the analysis, called the Baby & Infant Food Composition Database–InfantBase, show that only 20% of the products analyzed meet all the criteria of the nutritional and advertising profiles recommended by the WHO, and warn that 60% contain excessive amounts of sugar and that 99% of fruit purees would require a “high sugar content” warning seal.
The study also indicates that 30% of products incorporate added sugars or sweeteners, such as honey or concentrated juices, that no product meets all the commercial promotion criteria established by the WHO, and that 98% have unauthorized promotional claims or messages.
The database, which is part of the PRINUT project (Nutritional Analysis for Early Childhood and Regulation of Commercial Foods of the Generalitat of Catalonia), “constitutes a fundamental step in providing teams of health professionals with objective and evidence-based information, in a context in which the offer of commercial products for children is growing rapidly and does not always meet public health criteria”, explains researcher from the Human Nutrition Unit of the URV and coordinator of the project, Nancy Babio.
