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Researchers are calling for tighter regulation of food labeling and marketing in the children's food market, after discovering that 41% of products generally perceived as "healthy" were clbadified as "less healthy". This could avoid confusion around nutritional quality and reduce the rising rates of obesity in children.
In the UK, food packaging for children often use cartoon characters, toys, games and promotions, but the use of health and nutrition claims creates a positive impression called " health halo effect ".
Researchers at the University of Glasgow have studied foods for children over one year of age in the UK, focusing on packaging with child-focused images and health and safety claims. nutrition, especially "one in five per day". The nutritional quality of 332 different products – breakfast cereals, fruit snacks, fruit drinks, dairy products and ready meals – was badyzed using Ofcom's nutritional profiling model. This clbadification ranks nutritional quality using a seven-element scoring system – energy, total sugars, saturated fat, salt, fruits / vegetables / nuts, fiber and protein – based on information from Product labeling.
Posted in Archives of childhood diseases, they found that cereal bars had the highest energy and saturated fat content, that cereals had the highest salt content and that fruit snacks had the highest sugar content. Despite the fact that fruit snacks contained an average of 48/100 g of sugar, they still applied 5 days a day, which researchers say is confusing for parents.
Nearly a quarter of the products, most of which were fruit drinks and snacks, contained "no added sugar" claims, but half contained concentrated juice or fruit puree as added ingredients.
"Processed fruits are perceived by the public as a healthy natural alternative to added sugars, but because of the degradation of cell structure, they potentially have the same negative effect on weight gain as other forms of sugar. That's why they have recently been clbadified in the UK, "the researchers wrote.
More than 41% of the products were the subject of claims 5 times a day, but more than 44% of them contained processed fruits, concentrated fruit juice or mashed potatoes.
Although 82% of them said they contained a portion of fruit or vegetables, three out of four did not contain the recommended size of 80 g. The results also revealed that the portion size for almost all fruit drinks exceeded the recommended limit of 150 ml for fruit juice, while fruit and vegetable servings for most products were below the recommended portion.
The researchers noted that the contents of some ingredients were estimated, but indicated that the results indicate that the health and nutrition claims on the packaging are confusing and need to be addressed.
"Pre-packaged foods for children can be consumed as part of a" balanced and healthy "diet, but their health and nutrition claims remain debatable. Given the current rise in childhood obesity rates, the consumption of less healthy foods could have long-term negative consequences on the child's health, "the researchers wrote. "Tighter regulations on product composition, food labeling and marketing techniques are needed to discourage the promotion of foods that can be considered obese."
