Holly Gabriel RNutr, Nutrition Manager, Action on Sugar

Today, as part of Sugar Awareness Week 2021, our NEW survey[i] has exposed the alarming amounts of sugars found in many baby & toddler sweet snacks such as biscuits, rusks, oat bars and puffs. This research brings to light yet another ‘Baby Gap’ in policies that are supposed to protect our children’s health. These types of foods are repeatedly missed from important policies such as sugar reduction and front of pack labelling.

Some of the products in our survey, popular with parents for a quick ‘nutritious’ snack for their child, contained a massive two teaspoons of free sugars per serve![ii] The reason this is so concerning is that babies and toddlers should not be eating any free sugars at all.[iii] In fact, children between the ages of 1.5 and 3 years are exceeding 27.9g (equivalent of 7 teaspoons) of free sugars per day, according to the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS).

Free sugars[iv] found in sugary food and drinks are the main cause of tooth decay. Excess consumption of free sugars also leads to increased energy (calorie) intake, compared to other sources of energy​, and consumption ofsugar sweetened drinks is associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

Almost haf of the products (36 out of 73) in our survey claim on-pack that they are suitable for babies under the age of 12 months even though sugar sweetened food and drink should be avoided in this age group completely. How is this helpful for parents?

Guidance for this age group states that for those under 12 months there is no need for ‘snacks’ as young children should be having ‘mini meals’. Once they are over the age of 1 year children can move on to three meals and two nutritious snacks​ a day. Sugary foods (including dried fruit) should not be eaten between meals, to protect the teeth.

But we don’t live in a world where we always have homemade nutritious to hand on all occasions, and there is a huge range of commercial baby and toddler snack foods​ on the market jostling for position in the baby aisle. Our survey shows a huge variation in composition and sugar content with a vast collection of healthy-sounding claims on sugary foods.

There is a worry we are normalising sweet snacks at a young age.  Given just a few baby & toddler sweet snacks would be considered low in sugar, the Government must act and release their long-awaited commercial baby food and drink guidelines and make them mandatory to hold all companies to the same standard.  Sugar reduction, labelling and marketing

We need:

• Honest labelling that isn’t misleading or distracting 
• Removal of misleading claims like ‘no added sugar’ ‘1 of your 5 a day’ - on unhealthy products
• Mandatory industry guidance to create a level-playing field-including reformulation targets
• Responsible marketing & promotions – no advertising of unhealthy products to children
• Removal of cartoon animations - on unhealthy products

The Government needs to address the ‘Baby Gap’ in vital policies to protect children’s health.

#SnackingonSugar

 

[i] http://www.actiononsugar.org/surveys/2021/ 

[ii] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/ndns-results-from-years-9-to-11-2016-to-2017-and-2018-to-2019

[iii]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/725530/SACN_report_on_Feeding_in_the_First_Year_of_Life.pdf

[iv] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5962881/