Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to evaluate the link between exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and levels of (1) peanut, (2) egg, and (3) other food, allergies among children.

The United Kingdom’s infant feeding recommendations are based on robust, independent advice from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). The SACN published its report, Feeding in the first year of life, in July 2018. This included consideration of the best available evidence on the duration of exclusive breastfeeding and the timing of the introduction of allergenic foods, including peanuts and hen’s eggs, into the infant diet. Considerations were informed by a joint SACN and Food Standards Agency Committee on Toxicity (COT) statement, named Assessing the health benefits and risks of the introduction of peanut and hen’s egg into the infant diet before six months of age in the UK.

Based on the SACN’s advice, the Government continues to recommend exclusively breastfeeding for the approximate first six months of life. Advice on the introduction of peanuts and hen’s eggs was strengthened to state that these foods can be introduced from approximately six months of age, need not be differentiated from other solid foods, and that the deliberate exclusion of peanuts or hen’s eggs beyond six to 12 months of age may increase the risk of allergy to these foods.

A five-year research project, Preventing food allergy in infants with early introduction of complementary feeding, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, started in September 2024. The SACN and the COT will review this research once available. A new Infant Feeding Survey undertaken in 2024 will provide data on breastfeeding and the introduction of solid foods, including allergenic foods. Results will be available later this year.