Understanding Public Health Priorities for Baby Foods

The quality and safety of baby food products are important for ensuring the proper growth and development of infants and young children. Any inadequacies in these baby foods can lead to significant health risks, including malnutrition, obesity, and developmental issues.

The Nutrient and Promotion Profile Model (NPPM) was developed in response to the growing international concern over the suitability of commercial food products for infants and young children (FIYC) available across Europe. Existing regulatory guidelines and standards (Alimentarius, 1981; EC, 2006) are outdated and insufficient, prompting WHO Member States and health bodies to call for urgent action to end the inappropriate promotion of FIYC (WHO, 2019, 2022).

Project overview

The project aimed to assess the compliance of baby food products with international standards across multiple countries by analysing nutritional content and promotional claims. This unique research evaluated both nutritional composition and marketing practices on a global scale. A dashboard and reproducible report were developed to visualize the findings, enabling stakeholders to improve the regulation of FIYC.

While data is being collected by academics, healthcare professionals, and organizations, it is currently underutilized. This project sought to unlock insights from this data and make it accessible to policymakers. Data collected through the NPPM from 2022 to 2024, stored in a MongoDB database, involved submissions from healthcare professionals, researchers, NGOs, government bodies, the food industry, and the public.

Data and methods

The data covered key nutritional attributes such as energy density, free sugars, protein content, and fruit percentage, alongside promotional attributes like age appropriateness, product name clarity, preparation instructions, and compliance with the removal of nutritional, health, and marketing claims.

Products were categorized by food type (e.g., cereals, dairy, snacks, fruits and vegetables, meals), and compliance was measured against the WHO nutritional and promotional guidelines.

Computational and descriptive analysis was conducted to determine compliance rates by country, product category, and year.

Key findings & insights

• Nutritional compliance: The research found that compliance with most nutritional standards, such as sugar, fat, and energy density is relatively high ranging between 61% - 90%. However, some attributes like fruit percentage and additional water are generally low, with compliance less than 30% and even 0% in some instances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig 1 a – d shows the free sugar compliance over the years and by food categories.

• Promotional standards: Most products failed to meet promotional standards, particularly in terms of maximum age recommendation, removal of nutritional, health, and marketing claims, and protection and promotion of breastfeeding, reaching up to 0% in some instances. Exceptions were seen in a few attributes including minimum age recommendations with compliance as high as 86%.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig 2 a – d shows the protection and promotion of breastfeeding compliance over the years and by food categories.

• Geographical disparities: Compliance rates and data samples varied significantly across regions, with some countries like Australia consistently showing high adherence, but with limited sample products assessed.

Countries including the UK, Spain, and Malaysia have relatively high numbers of baby products captured with some level of compliance reaching up to 98% for nutritional criteria Generally, most of the countries record low compliance with the promotional standards.

 

 

 

 

 

Fig 3 a - c shows the heatmap of minimum age recommendation (6 months) compliance by country.

• Data gaps: Across all years investigated, there were substantial gaps in reporting, especially for critical attributes like protein content, maximum age recommendations, and protection and promotion of breastfeeding.

These data gaps present a significant barrier to a comprehensive evaluation of baby food safety and compliance with public health guidelines. Countries with high non-compliance often also had the largest proportion of unreported data, suggesting a need for better data collection and transparency.

Value of the research

This research supports stakeholders, such as academics, WHO, and policymakers, in identifying where stricter enforcement of nutritional and promotional standards for baby food products could have the greatest impact. By highlighting regional trends in non-compliance, the study provides essential insights for improving regulatory frameworks and strengthening public health interventions to protect infants from inadequate nutrition and misleading marketing.

Quote from project partner

“The NPPM and accompanying website and toolkit is a fantastic resource that stakeholders across the Region can use to assess the baby food market in their countries. This project helps policymakers utilise that data to identify Region-wide trends and opportunities for collaborative learning and action to improve the nutritional health of infants and young children in countries across the Region.”

Dr. Holly Rippin RNutr, Consultant, World Health Organization Regional Officer for Europe

Research theme

• Health
• Societies

Programme theme

• Statistical Data Science
• Mathematical and Computational Foundations
• Data Science Infrastructures

People

• Folasayo Ogundipe, Data Scientist, Leeds Institute for Data Analytics, UoL
• Dr Victoria Jenneson, Research Fellow, UoL
• Dr Rachel Oldroyd, Lecturer in Spatial Data Science, School of Geography, UoL
• Holly Rippin, WHO (Europe Region)
• Dr Diane Threapleton, Nutritional Epidemiology, Maternal and Infant Nutrition, Public Health Nutrition, Visiting Research Fellow at the UoL
• Prof Janet Cade, School of Food Science and Nutrition, UoL

Partners

• World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe

Funders

Funded by Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC)