Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to update the existing regulations on composition, marketing and labelling of commercial infant and toddler foods.

Children’s early years provide an important foundation for their future health and strongly influence many aspects of wellbeing in later life.

The Government has published voluntary industry baby food guidelines as part of our comprehensive strategy to give children the best start in life. The guidelines challenge businesses to reduce the levels of salt and sugar in commercial baby food and drink products aimed at those aged up to 36 months. The guidelines also set out voluntary labelling actions for industry, in addition to reinforcing legislative requirements around labelling and health and nutrition claims. This will help to support parents and carers to make informed choices about what to feed their children.

Businesses have 18 months from the publication of these guidelines, therefore by February 2027, to deliver the required changes. We will monitor industry progress towards implementing the sugar, salt, and labelling guidelines.

It is vital that we maintain the highest standards for foods consumed by babies and infants, which is why we also have regulations in place that set nutritional, compositional, and labelling standards for commercial baby food. These ensure that commercial baby foods are suitable for infants and young children and require businesses to ensure labelling is clear and not misleading. The regulations also set labelling standards to ensure consumers have clear and accurate information about the products they buy.

The Best Start in Life health website has advice for parents and carers on successful weaning of infants to introduce healthy solid foods, and is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/

It has been updated to provide new advice on shop-bought baby food and healthy weaning practices. The update has been made in light of the increased availability and range of commercial baby food products, highlighting the need for clear and consistent advice for parents and carers.

We continue to keep these regulations under review to ensure that the composition of infant food and drinks reflects the latest scientific advice and dietary guidelines. The voluntary industry baby food guidelines should support improvements in this area.