Cheating Babies
The Centre For Science n the Public Interest (CSPI), a Washington-based
research group that analyses government food regulatory policies
and the nutritional adequacy (or lack there-of) of food products,
recently publiched a review of the nutritional quality and cost
of commercial baby foods.
CSPI posed this question: do the manufacturers of baby foods
live up to parents' expectations and such corporate slogans as
"Only the best ingredients for the best nutrition"?
The study intended to inform parents about the nutritional differences
among the various baby foods commercially available and the high
cost of these products.
Commercial baby food is a $US 1.25 billion industry
in that country alone. It is controlled by three companies, Heinz,
Gerber and Beech-Nut. The average US baby consumes 600 jars of
prepared baby food by the age of 12 months (4 million babies are
born annually in the US). European babies, by contrast, consume
only about 240 jars and Eastern European babies even less - 12
jars.
To gain parental trust in baby food products, the industry
uses many of the marketing manoeuvres of the artificial baby milk
industry -- direct mail, coupons, "infant nutrition"
brochures. Recently Gerber launched a $US 30 million campaign
with the slogan "For learning to eat smart, right from the
start".
(NOTE: Any ads that interfere with exclusive breastfeeding
for the first four to six months of breastfeeding with the addition
of appropriate complementary foods up to two years of age
and compromise infant and young child nutrition violate the International Code.
This is what CSPI found:
Gerber
and Heinz replace real food with water and thickening agents
in many of their products for children over six months of age.
Such adulterated products are nutritionally inferior to products
made with more fruits and vegetables. For example, Gerber
and Heinz regular dinners contain at least two typed of refined
flour as thickeners and provide less than 50 per cent of the
nutrients found in comparable dinners made from whole foods with
no starch fillers. These products were considered a "monetary
rip-off".
- Baby foods are very high priced compared to similar regular
foods. For example, parents often pay twice as much for baby
fruit juices and applesauce as for regular fruit juices and applesauce.
- makers of baby food encourage a mystique about their products.
They want parents to think that commercial baby foods have special
properties that make them particularly appropriate for infants,
if not essential. How do the manufacturers do this? Advertising
promotes the myth that commercial products are especially good
at meeting the nutritional and developmental needs of infants.
Sound familiar?
What can parents do?
The CSPI recommends:
- Prepare your own baby foods whenever possible.
- When buying commercial baby foods, compare labels carefully.
- Avoid baby desserts; instead feed your baby plain fruit products
- Whenever possible, buy regular fruit juices, unsweetened
apple sauce, and other comparable foods instead of baby foods.
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