Kids are sweet enough!

The North Eastern Public Health Unit (NEPHU) is proudly supporting Food for Health Alliance’s (FHA) existing advocacy campaign, 'Kids are sweet enough' which calls for the Australian Government to set higher standards for the ingredients, labelling and promotion of ready-made baby and toddler foods.

🤔 What’s the issue?

Did you know, there is currently no legislation in Australia limiting the amount of sugar allowed in ready-made baby and toddler food products? For many children, ready-made baby and toddler foods make up a significant portion of what they eat every day. These foods should support good health and wellbeing, but many do not. There is also lax regulation around labelling, with 30% of baby and toddler food labels misrepresenting the contents of the product or the nutritional value of the food. This can be confusing to parents and caregivers and, given that two thirds of parents report that product names guide their product purchases, inaccurate labelling can have an important impact on the nutritional health of young children.

FHA’s Kids are sweet enough campaign is advocating for government to change the law to support a healthy diet for babies and toddlers across three key areas:

1. Ingredients: Prevent processed food companies adding sugar to baby and toddler foods.
2. Promotion: Ensure foods for babies and toddlers are free from promotional claims.
3. Labelling: Ensure the names of baby and toddler foods accurately reflect the ingredients.

💡 What are we doing about it?

Increasing Healthy Eating has been identified as a priority area in our inaugural Population Health Catchment plan for 2023 – 2025 and, through extensive consultation, a Healthy Eating Action Plan has been developed to guide collective actions across the catchment to improve healthy eating. Recognising the importance of partnerships and collaboration, NEPHU is committed to amplifying existing health promotion and advocacy initiatives to generate collective impact.

We’re very proud to say that NEPHU was the first Local Public Health Unit to sign on to the Kids are sweet enough advocacy campaign.

We also brainstormed with FHA to identify other ways we could support their campaign and learned that elevating the voices of parents, caregivers on key issues, such as this, can be an especially powerful form of advocacy to the government.

NEPHU reached out to Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Nurses and culturally diverse community leaders from across the catchment to hear what parents and caregivers thought of the current nutritional standards of baby and toddler ready-made packaged foods. MCH nurses and leaders asked these parents and caregivers three key questions to capture consumer reflections of the current nutritional standards of ready-made baby and toddler foods and their future expectations. MCH nurses recorded their responses, which were then transcribed and anonymised and fed back to us. These quotes and excerpts were shared with FHA to be used in promotional materials to support their Kids are sweet enough campaign.

🗣️ What do parents and caregivers in our catchment have to say?

They recognised parents frequently rely on ready-made baby and toddler foods.

• “I do think it is important for time poor parents to have access to some snack foods that are easy and convenient, I think the problem is when there are a large number of preservatives, maltodextrin etcetera.” (Nillumbik MCH)
• "My family believes fresh is healthier, but lifestyle doesn’t allow us to make healthy options. Over consumerism has confused us on how to make a healthy choice in toddler, kids or adult foods, as we are relying a lot on packaged food nowadays.” (Oorja Foundation)

They want to be able to trust that ready-made baby and toddler food would support the health and wellbeing of their children.

• “Most parents do think that all baby foods are made sugar free.” (Whittlesea MCH)
• “Empower parents to...trust the products that they're buying without being influenced by marketing and packaging.” (Boroondara MCH)
• “Who looks after the monitoring of food labels and product information – can we trust what is listed on our food we purchase?” (Nillumbik MCH)
• “Culturally we are not aware of which brand is good enough to be considered. We often ask friends and follow up what's been recommended.” (Oorja Foundation)

They were not aware that this was not more tightly regulated already.

• "Why isn't ‘added sugar’ labelling already compulsory?" (Boroondara MCH)
• “I use the health star rating to compare and select healthy products. I did not know it was optional for food manufacturers to display this system on their products. I have been missing out on products that do not display the health star rating thinking it was unhealthy.” (St Dominic’s Primary School)

They wanted more transparent food labelling.

• “If I were a parent choosing baby foods, (with promotional claims) “made with real fruit” and “organic”, this would automatically make me feel like the product would be a really healthy choice.” (Whittlesea MCH)
• “It is usually "per serving" that people are unsure how to work out what is a serve. It's the sugars that need to be clearly identified.” (St Dominic’s Primary School)
• “Parents are trying to make better choices... if the packaging was easier to distinguish a healthier option, for example, a traffic light system with green = GO, this would help parents choose healthier foods especially if they don't know how to read English.” (St Dominic’s Primary School)
• “I think if the labelling 'made with real fruit' or 'organic' was removed it would increase nutritional literacy for parents.” (Boroondara MCH)

They would welcome government regulation in this space.

• “It would be good to have more regulations around the brand names of food to prevent misleading claims, for example, having a brand called “organic choice” when the food itself is not organic.” (Nillumbik MCH)
• “I think maybe a compulsory nutritional ‘star’ rating on products, accompanied by compulsory supermarket ‘shelving’ requirements, which are organised in nutritional value order, would make it easier for parents of all types of backgrounds to choose appropriately”. (St Dominic’s Primary School)

They want to be able to make an informed choice.

• “If government can regulate these labels and remove misleading claims, this will help us to choose better options.” (Oorja Foundation)
• “If higher nutritional standards were implemented on baby food items, regardless of whether parents read the label or not, their choices would then always be healthier than they presently are.” (Whittlesea MCH)

🧠 What did we learn?

Responses captured during this initiative showed that consumers in our catchment were unaware that sugar content of baby and toddler food was not strictly regulated, felt confused and misled by food labels. In addition, there was a sentiment for stronger government action of ready-made foods supportive of healthy and nutritious diets.

These findings support the aim of FHA’s Kids are sweet enough campaign and highlight the need for government action to remove misleading promotional claims on baby and toddler foods, restrict processed food companies from adding sugars to these foods, and make the health star rating mandatory.

🤝 How can you help?

As there is ever growing recognition that improving healthy eating requires a ‘whole-of-system’ approach, government action to improve early childhood nutrition is essential, and can have far reaching, inter-generational impact on improving the health of our population and reducing health inequities.

Join NEPHU and a growing number of other organisations by signing up to Kids are sweet enough and help give our children the best start in life.

We would like to thank Boroondara Maternal and Child Health Services, Nillumbik Maternal and Child Health Services, Whittlesea Maternal and Child Health Services, St Dominic's Primary School, Oorja Foundation and all parents and caregivers who shared their knowledge and experiences to support government action of the Kids are sweet enough advocacy campaign.