Cereal Mix for Babies Fall Short of Major Nutrients in Lower-income Countries

Highlights

When infants outgrow the nutrients provided by breast milk alone, complementary foods are introduced.
An analysis on premixed cereals for infants reveal that most of these products fail to meet the adequate nutrient needs.
A healthy child consuming breast milk plus enough of these solid foods to meet energy needs would experience deficits of zinc at 6 months, iron at 6 and 9 months, and dietary fat from 12 months of age.

Premixed infant cereals or complementary foods which are commercially available are a vital source of the solid food needed for healthy child growth after six months of age.

But a recent analysis of 108 commercially available, premixed complementary foods from 22 low- and middle-income countries, conducted by researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, now reveals a widespread lack of consistency in their nutritional content.

Baby Food - Basics
The healthiest baby foods can be made at home. Products from big brands that claim to develop infants’ health in a variety of ways are no match for nutritious home-made preparations.

‘There is a growing need for monitoring and quality assurance to help grain millers making premixed foods maintain uniform ingredient ratios and production practices.’

Tweet it Now

"Premixed complementary foods can be extremely effective at protecting infants against malnutrition and stunted growth. In countries where we sampled, some products can readily meet children's needs, but others fall far below requirements for both macro- and micronutrients," said study author William Masters, Ph.D., food economist and professor at the Friedman School.

"Our results are a call to action for establishing and enforcing nutritional quality standards, which would help ensure access to lower-cost, higher-quality products and enable parents to meet their infants' needs more easily."

With the assistance of collaborators around the world, Masters and his colleagues purchased and analyzed samples of locally produced complementary foods over a six-month period in 2014, from 21 African and Asian countries and from Haiti. All are defined as low- and middle-income countries by the World Bank. Each product was blind-tested for nutritional content within a month of purchase by an independent commercial laboratory based in the U.S.

Infants� Dietary Weaning Requirements Found to be Deficient, Baby Foods Not Up to the Mark
A test of 479 shop-bought products from leading manufacturers of baby foods sold in the UK were found to be deficient in nutrients that is needed to meet infants' dietary weaning needs

On average, products met basic calorie and protein benchmarks for complementary foods as published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the WHO. However, only 15 percent met benchmarks for fat content, and under 25 percent met standards for iron and zinc--two essential nutrients not present in sufficient levels in breast milk for healthy infant growth after six months of age, the critical time point for introducing solid foods.

The researchers estimate that a healthy child consuming breast milk alongside the average sampled complementary food would experience zinc and iron deficiency from six to nine months, and dietary fat deficiency at 12 months.

Study Finds Fifty Percent of Toddlers' Food too Sweet
A new Canadian study has revealed that close to fifty percent of food meant for babies and toddlers have a high sugar content.

The authors highlight how independent testing and verification of nutritional content could increase trust in local products, which would be far less costly than multinational brands. They cite work by Nobel Laureate George Akerlof, who was the first to demonstrate that independent certification is needed to sustain competitive markets for high-quality products.

Childhood malnutrition is the main cause of stunted growth, a serious and irreversible condition that puts affected individuals at greater risk for illness and death throughout their lives.

NGO Says Baby Food Giants Mislead Mothers About Breastfeeding
Many baby food giants promote supplementary baby food, undermine breastfeeding and natural foods, says an NGO.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), children with stunted growth can have delayed mental development and poor school performance, which in turn affects economic productivity at the national level. Nearly half of all deaths in children under age five are related to undernutrition, which is particularly widespread in Africa and Asia, according to UNICEF.

"This is a category of foods which can be lifesaving, but the market for locally made foods with the same nutrients as multinational brands is almost nonexistent. Why aren't store shelves full of competing, low-cost infant cereals made to uniform standards from local ingredients? Their potential cannot be fulfilled until parents trust them to have the nutritional contents they claim," said Masters, who also holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Economics in the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts.

"Introducing basic, independent quality assurance services is a proven way of establishing markets for high-quality products. Third-party certification programs can emerge from either the public, private or philanthropic sectors, and with coordination and effort it would be possible to accomplish this for complementary foods," Masters adds.

The study--the first global analysis of its kind--highlights how basic quality assurance services are needed to improve trust in these products and help reduce the incidence of childhood malnutrition in lower-income countries.

Reference

William A. Masters et al., Nutrient composition of premixed and packaged complementary foods for sale in low- and middle-income countries: Lack of standards threatens infant growth, Maternal & Child Nutrition (2016) doi/10.1111/mcn.12421/.

Source-Medindia