Most parents understand the importance of making sure that their babies and young children get the healthiest possible start to life with good eating habits. Even if parents can't afford organic foods, they are usually aware of the importance of key notions like good vitamins and minerals for babies, avoiding fruit juice in the first year, the need to steer clear of salt and sugar in a baby's diet, and possibly even be aware that it's important to avoid honey until their baby is one year old.
However, most parents who see well-known brand names from their own childhood, do not expect little treats like rusks or biscuits to contain levels of sugar and fat that aren't even acceptable most of the time for healthy adults!
Sustain (www.sustainweb.org) who campaign for better standards in food and farming support a project that aims to ensure children are eating as healthily and naturally as possible. As part of their campaign, they uncovered high levels of fats and sugar, for example they found that Farley's Rusks (known to be valuable because they are enriched with various key vitamins and minerals) actually contained 29% sugar.
Cow & Gate's Bear, Berry Bear and Animals Friends biscuits are to be taken off the market after discussions with the Food Standards Agency, because there is concern that these biscuits contain hydrogenated fat, even though much of the well-known brand's range of infant foods do contain only naturally-occuring sugars.
Many other brands and products were found to have undesirable ingredients not generally deemed suitable for very young children and, whilst standards are being raised all the time, parents are urged to always read the label for good, simple ingredients and avoid unneccessary additives and colourings.
