Massive sugar in baby porridge and baby biscuits

Foodwatch: Special baby food often insufficient

09/27/2014

Foodwatch consumer advocates raise the alarm: In special children's foods such as „Baby biscuits“ or „baby food“ There is too much sugar in it. Above all the drinking meals, a sugar mixture also milk and grain, is „more than questionable“. For some time, doctors know that even small children can develop adiposity and tooth decay. Therefore the demand of the consumer protection organization is: „The laws should be stricter. Doctors and dentists should participate in the development.

Already in advertising, the parents are suggested that baby biscuits, baby porridge and special drinking meals are provided only with very healthy ingredients. A CEO even stands „with his good name“ said a spokesman for the organization during the press conference in Berlin, in which pediatricians and dentists participated. However, the products contain too much sugar and are therefore „anything but healthy“. Even so-called baby tea varieties are already sweetened with sugar. „The risk of obesity, tooth decay and diabetes is increasing“.

Many foods would not hold the scientific status of child nutrition. „Many foods available as baby products are in conflict with the nutritional or medical recommendations for infants“, so food watch. This is very evident in the drinking meals. According to Foodwatch, the German Society for Paediatrics and Youth Medicine (DGKJ) has been campaigning for an immediate halt to the sale of these products since 2007. Meanwhile, Danone has responded to the criticism and taken his Milupa drinking meals from the range. Hipp and Nestlé continue to offer such products.

Baby or infant biscuits are by no means on the diet of the youngest, according to the consumer organization. They contained sugar contents of between 14.6 and 25 percent. Nevertheless, the manufacturers would promote the product as an ideal snack for babies. The same applies to sugary baby porridge, which would also be advertised as a suitable food for babies, but in fact are unhealthy.

Many pediatricians and dentists support Foodwatch's call for tougher laws for baby food ingredients. „The diet in the first months of life is influential and affects the subsequent nutritional habits of a person. That is why it is important to avoid over-familiarizing in infancy. This should take baby food into account“, Prof. Dr. Wieland Kiess, Director of the Department of Paediatrics at the University Hospital Leipzig.

Foodwatch calls for tougher laws for the ingredients of baby food
„Early childhood caries in the first years of life is on the rise in Germany. The culprit is not least the frequent use of sweet drinks or sweet snacks, as these cause tooth decay even at the first little tooth“, reports Prof. Dr. med. Dietmar Oesterreich, Vice President of the Federal Dental Association. „This has long-term consequences: children with caries develop caries significantly more often in adult teeth.“

For Foodwatch therefore calls on the legislator to ensure stricter requirements, „that only products that are in line with child and dental recommendations will come on the market as baby food“. (sb, ag)