Some baby food ‘is as salty as a bag of crisps’
BABY and toddler snacks can contain almost as much salt as a regular bag of Walkers crisps, it has been revealed.
According to new research, the expanding children’s food market has led to a 70% surge in the sale of “unhealthy” children’s snacks in the past two years.
The study found that popular child snack Kiddylicious Veggie Straws contains 1.5g of salt per 100g, which is more than ready salted Walkers crisps (1.4g).
But Kiddylicious say the salt is necessary to stop the product from becoming a choking hazard for young children.
For children aged up to 12 months, a typical bag of these snacks can contain around a quarter of their recommended daily salt intake.
Too much salt during childhood can result in damage to immature kidneys, consequences in adult health and obesity.
Mum-of-two and TV presenter Cherry Healey, who is fronting a nationwide campaign called Food You Can Trust, said many parents are oblivious to the salt content of these products.
“As a mum, I feel passionately about the quality of children’s food,” she said. “There are some great snack foods on supermarket shelves, but there’s also some misleading labelling, and I’ve found unnecessary ingredients hiding in baby and toddler snacks, like added flavourings and salt. It’s time we did something about it.”
As part of National Salt Awareness Week, a survey was carried out to gauge the response of parents to the salt content of some baby and toddler snacks.
It found that 86% of parents in Wales were “shocked” that baby and toddler snacks can contain the same level of salt as a regular bag of Walkers crisps. Similarly, 69% of parents said they were shocked to discover that some baby and toddler snacks contain up to 30 separate ingredients.
And 64% of parents wished there were healthier options in the supermarket, while 72% wanted brands to be more transparent about food labelling.
Nutritionist Dr Frankie Phillips said: “Children need a diet low in salt. Salty snacks aimed for adults are completely unsuitable for little ones because of the high sodium content, so too are baby finger foods and toddler snacks that contain comparable levels of salt.
“Sodium is naturally present in some foods, but adding salt to food provides far higher levels of sodium than a toddler needs, so there’s no nutritional benefit, and it can be harmful.
“Over time, if a baby or toddler is given salty foods, they develop a preference for salty tastes and this can lead to eating too much salt, with consequences even for their adult health.”
Philipp von Jagow, managing director at Organix, part of the Food You Can Trust campaign, said: “There’s been a massive explosion in the number of baby and toddler snacks available, but it’s come at a nutritional cost.
“As brands have rushed to launch new foods, standards have slipped and we’ve seen sales of unhealthy snacks rise by 70% in the last two years. It’s unacceptable that it should take 30 different ingredients to make a tasty toddler fruit snack, or that salt should be added to corn snacks.
“It’s time we called for change to protect our little ones. There are existing baby food regulations governing nutrition and safety criteria, but too many gaps in this regulation are allowing poorer-standard foods to enter the marketplace – currently there’s a lack of integrity and enforcement and we’re calling for that to change.”
In response, a spokeswoman from Kiddylicious said: “For our straw products, salt is added at a minimal level to ensure the straw stick is suitably puffed to make it appropriate for a young child.
“If no salt were added, our straws would be too hard and a potential choking hazard for young children, which is clearly unacceptable. Salt is added at a minute amount as a functional ingredient.
“With regard to Veggie Straws, the salt was reduced by 40% five months ago to 0.9g/100g and 0.1g/ portion because children’s health and wellbeing is our priority. Unfortunately the old packaging (containing the new product with lower salt values) is still on the shelf while we use up the old film. We’re an environmentally-aware company and wouldn’t want the old packaging to simply be sent to landfill.
“And we wouldn’t recommend that children eat 100g of our straws in a week, let alone in one sitting.”