Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the nutritional content of commercial infant and baby foods.

An evidence review on commercial baby food and drink, published in June 2019, showed that young children are eating too much sugar and salt, and energy intakes are exceeding requirements. Some baby foods, particularly finger foods, had added sugar or salt or contained ingredients that are high in sugar or salt. More information on this review is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/commercial-infant-and-baby-food-and-drink-evidence-review

More recent evidence considered by the independent Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), for their report on Feeding Young Children aged 1 to 5 years, published in July 2023, reported that among children aged 12 to 18 months old who consumed commercial baby food and drinks, these products provided around 20% of free sugars intakes. Free sugar intakes are above recommendations for children at all ages where recommendations have been set.

SACN recommended in this report that foods, including snacks that are high in salt, free sugars, saturated fat, or are energy dense, should be limited in the diets of children aged one to five years and that commercially manufactured foods and drinks marketed specifically for infants and young children are not needed to meet nutrition requirements.

We face a childhood obesity crisis and the Government is committed to raising the healthiest next generation. Under our health mission and shift to prevention we are considering what action is needed to respond to the SACN commercial baby food recommendations to establish healthy habits as early as possible.