Parents being ’hoodwinked’ by marketing claims on baby food

Parents are better off smashing an avocado or banana for babies and toddlers than forking out for many pre-prepared supermarket foods.

Hugo Van Der Meer enjoys healthy avocado, apple and banana. Picture: Josie Hayden

Parents would be better off mashing a banana or smashing an avocado rather than buying many of the ready-made foods marketed for babies and toddlers in Australia.

New research by the Food for Health Alliance in Victoria has highlighted many food products marketed for children under the age of three have a “healthy halo” to make them look better than they actually are.

The Alliance is a leading policy and advocacy voice that partners with Cancer Council Victoria, VicHealth and Deakin University to help improve Australian diets with a focus on children.

Its executive manager Jane Martin says parents are being hoodwinked by the way many of the quick and easy products are being packaged and marketed.

Ms Martin says the problem is fixable if the federal government takes on the new recommendations recently set by the World Health Organisation’s Europe office.

“It says these foods for babies and toddlers shouldn’t carry three distinct categories of health, content or marketing claims on the packaging,” she said.

There is often hidden sugars, salt and other unhealthy ingredients in baby and toddler food sold in supermarkets. Picture: Josie Hayden

The research, led by the Alliance’s Andrea Schmidtke, shows a staggering 72 per cent of packaged foods sold for babies and toddlers in Australia do not meet all nutrition standards for sugar, sweetness, sodium, fat and energy.

Ms Martin says parents have the right to expect responsible and honest marketing of the products they are feeding their children, particularly as many are not as nutritious as they sound.

“You almost need to be a nutritionist and a mathematician to understand the nutrition information panel and what’s in these foods,” she said.

“Research shows these claims are influential and some products can have up to 20 marketing claims on one small product.

“These included ‘packed with real fruit’ which sounds good but in fact for many the only sugar is a sticky paste that is essentially sugar.”

This research, along with two other papers, will be presented in a symposium at the Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society conference in Adelaide this week.

The findings, Ms Martin said, will shed light on a critical issue that many ready-made baby and toddler foods that are high in sugar or salt are marketed heavily with on-pack claims, which make them sound like a good option.

Michelle Andrews with Florence, 3. Many products promise the world but don’t deliver from a nutrition point of view. Picture Rebecca Michael

A Cancer Council Victoria study, led by Helen Dixon, found that when unhealthy toddler foods display marketing claims like ‘free from preservatives’ this boosts the intentions of parents and carers to buy these products for their toddlers to eat.

“These findings show how marketing claims that highlight isolated positive features of otherwise unhealthy products can mislead consumers about the true contents of these foods,” Associate Professor Dixon said.

Mum of two Michelle Andrews prefers to shop online as she says supermarkets visits can be more frantic with young children.

“They are drawn to the packaging and you are trying to keep an eye on them and do your shopping, so often you don’t have time to really read what’s on the nutrition panel,” she said.

The teacher says she is conscious of her family eating well, but already daughters Poppy, 5, and Florence, 3, can’t resist any yoghurt featuring the cartoon character Bluey.

“I wholeheartedly support more regulation, it would make things simpler for time-poor, sleep- deprived parents. There needs to be mandates around packaging so that there are not misleading claims, less bombardment and make it less attractive to children,” she said.

The study calls for:

• Limits on how much sugar can be added to products

• Limit sodium in products for babies and toddlers

• Ban three distinct categories of health, content or marketing claims on food packaging