A of baby and toddler foods on supermarket shelves across Australia has revealed a staggering number of unregulated claims that mislead parents into thinking these often sugar-loaded products are healthy. The findings, published in , showed that none of the products for children aged 6–36 months met international guidelines for promotion and more than three quarters failed on overall nutritional requirements, mainly due to and sugar. Lead author Dr.
Elizabeth Dunford, Research Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health, said that consuming excess calories in early years sets children up for obesity in later life and the early introduction of highly sweetened foods drives lifelong taste preferences. "Time-poor parents are looking for convenience, but most would be shocked by industry's deceptive marketing tactics suggesting products are healthier than they are, that are rife across this category," she said. "They would probably also be surprised to know that regulatory safeguards to protect children from exposure to unhealthy food marketing are currently very limited.
" Information on 309 infant and toddler food products held in The George Institute's FoodSwitch database was assessed against the WHO Regional Office for Europe's Nutrient and Promotion Profile Model (NPPM), published in 2022 and considered a gold standard benchmark. George Institute researchers found that only just over a fifth of the products (22%) met all WHO criteria for nutrient composition—most fai.