Specialist group Action on Sugar has raised concern over misleading on-pack marketing claims, calling them to be removed, after discovering “alarming amounts” of sugar in baby and toddler snacks.
Action on Sugar conducted a product survey based at Queen Mary University, finding some baby snacks contained as much as two large teaspoons of sugar per serving.
It found ‘no added sugar/refined sugar’ products are replacing sugar with fruit concentrates which are still a type of sugars.
Children aged between the ages of one and a half and three years are exceeding 27.9g (the equivalent of seven teaspoons) of sugars per day, according to the National Diet and Nutrition Survey.
The survey tested 73 sweet snacks in stores, finding Heinz Farley’s Mini Rusks Original to be the “worst offender” with 8.7g of sugars per serve – equivalent to two teaspoons of sugar. This was followed by Organix Banana Soft Oaty Bars at 8.1g of sugars per serve which are sweetened with apple juice concentrate.
When it comes to sugar per 100g 27 out of 73 snacks tested would receive a red label for sugars if baby and toddler foods carried traffic light labelling on the front of packs.
Five products from the Kiddylicious brand scored the worst for sugars per 100g, while only six products would gain a green label or score for low sugars.
A public opinion poll on 1,000 parents with young children, found eight out of 10 parents buy ‘healthy’ baby and toddler sweet snacks for their children, six out of 10 say a ‘no added sugar’ claim would be the reason for choosing a particular product, 92 per cent said they were more inclined to buy products containing ‘natural sources’ of sugars.
Action on Sugar campaign lead and Queen Mary University of London research fellow Dr Kawther Hashem, says: “It’s ludicrous that certain food companies are being allowed to promote their high sugar sweet snacks to parents with very young children, despite them being aware that babies and toddlers shouldn’t be having any free sugars.
“Babies can have a preference for sweet foods, due to milk being ever so slightly sweet, but liking sugary foods is something they only learn by eating sugary foods. Some companies choose to encourage this preference further by providing lots of very sweet products from an early age. What we need is companies to make products with a minimal amount of sugars, so young children can grow up enjoying less sweet foods.”
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