Changes in the UK baby food market surveyed in 2013 and 2019: the rise of baby snacks and sweet/savoury foods

TL;DR: Fewer foods are now marketed to infants aged 4 months, but there has been no overall reduction in the sweetness of products and the increase in snack foods and the sugar content of savoury foods is a concern.

Abstract: Objective To assess how the baby food market in the UK has changed between 2013 and 2019. Setting United Kingdom. Design A cross-sectional survey of all infant food products available to buy in the UK online and in-store collected in 2019. Nutritional content and product descriptions were recorded and compared with an existing 2013 database. Main outcome measures Change in the proportion of products marketed to infants aged 4 months, proportion classified as sweet versus savoury, spoonable versus dry (snacks) average sugar content. Results Fewer products were described as suitable for infants aged 4 months in 2019 (201, 23%) compared with 2013 (178, 43%; p Conclusions Fewer foods are now marketed to infants aged 4 months, but there has been no overall reduction in the sweetness of products and the increase in snack foods and the sweetness of savoury foods is a concern.

Summary

Introduction

• The transition from an exclusively milk-based diet to solid foods, should be a gradual process whereby suitable and nutritious family foods are introduced to the infant 1 .
• In 2013 and 2016 the authors reported concerns on the nutrition quality and recommendations in food labels of CBF.
• Recently other important surveys of the CBF market reported similar concerns 4 7 .
• Concerns exist on the implications these products might have for the development of feeding skills 10 11 .

Data collection

• Information was gathered on all infant food products available to buy in the UK online and in-store by two researchers at two time points, January 2019 and September 2019.
• Online searches of baby foods in large UK supermarkets Morrisons, Sainsbury's, ASDA, TESCO and Waitrose were conducted at the two time points..
• For in store visits the largest supermarkets in Glasgow were selected.
• Wet were ready-made wet, spoonable foods and dry were dry powders, snacks (e.g. biscuits, dry fruit, crisps) and dry finger foods.
• Products only available in Amazon were excluded due to incomplete nutritional information (n=48).

Data analysis

• Products were classified into sweet and savoury as described previously 5 .
• Savoury foods were meals or snacks containing meat, poultry, fish or vegetables, cheese, pulses or carbohydrate-based foods, or a combination of these.
• Ingredient lists were consulted to confirm classifications and products which were difficult to classify were also tasted (n=12).
• The nutritional content of all wet ("spoonable") and dry, finger foods ("snacks") available in 2013 and 2019 were compared.
• Differences between 2013 to 2019 values were analysed by Mann-Whitney test.

General characteristics

• Thirty-two brands selling baby foods were identified including 27 brands not included in 2013 (referred to as "additional brands").
• General characteristics of the 2013 database have been reported elsewhere 5 .

Sweet versus savoury products

• There was no change in the proportion of sweet and savoury products over time (Table 3 ).
• In 2019 the authors identified 72 (16%) savoury products that contained more than 50% sweet root vegetables, as well as 8 (2%) which contained more than 50% fruit, in addition to vegetables.
• This results in 80 "sweet/savoury" products, representing 18% of all savoury products.

Nutrient content

• For all sweet, spoonable products there was a small but significant decrease in sugar content (6%) between 2013 and 2019 and a more substantial relative reduction in salt (60%) (Table 4 ), but savoury, spoonable products showed a 16% increase in sugar and only a 30% reduction in salt.
• Sweet snacks were very similar in nutrient composition between 2013 and 2019, remaining very sweet (Table 5 ).
• The authors conducted a separate nutrient content analysis for same brands for both wet and dry foods (Supplementary Table 1 and 2 ) and compared them against 2019 data set.
• Compared with the 2013 database, nutrient content has not changed but for very small reductions (<1g) in sugar and salt content in wet foods.

Conclusions

• The product range of commercial infant foods has expanded dramatically in the last 7 years, both in number of brands and types of products.
• Fewer foods are now marketed to infants aged four months, but the increase in snack foods and the sweetness of savoury foods is a concern.

Figures

Table 4. Nutrient content for all sweet and savoury spoonable products in 2013 and 2019.

Table 3. The number and proportion of total products per the same brands (2013 and 2019) and additional brands (2019) according to flavour profile and product type. Proportions indicate the percentage of products within each dataset. (95% confidence interval (CI), bold format displaying significant difference between 2013 and all 2019 products)

Table 2. The number and proportion of total products per same brands (2013 and 2019) and additional brands (2019) according to age group. Proportions indicate the percentage of products within each dataset. (95% confidence interval (CI), bold format displaying significant difference between 2013 and all 2019 products)

Table 1. General characteristics of 2019 baby food products.

Table 5. Nutrient content for all sweet and savoury dry snacks in 2013 and 2019.

Full text

Garcia, A.L., Curtin, L., Ronquillo, D., Parrett, A. and Wright, C.M. (2020) Changes in
the UK baby food market surveyed in 2013 and 2019: the rise of baby snacks and
sweet/savoury foods. Archives of Disease in Childhood, (doi: 10.1136/archdischild-
2020-318845)
There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are
advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it.
http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/214881/
Deposited on 27 May 2020
Enlighten – Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow
http://eprints.gla.ac.uk

1
Changes in the UK baby food market surveyed in 2013 and 2019: the rise of baby snacks and
sweet/savoury foods
Garcia AL
1
*; Curtin L
1
, Ronquillo D
1
, Parrett A
1
, Wright CM
2
Affiliations for all authors
1
Human Nutrition, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, College of Medical, Veterinary & Life
Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G31 2ER, UK
2
Child Health, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, College of Medical, Veterinary & Life
Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G51 4TF, UK
*Corresponding author
Ada L Garcia
Human Nutrition, School of Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences, University of
Glasgow
New Lister Building, Glasgow Royal Infirmary,
10-16 Alexandra Parade, Glasgow, G31 2ER, UK
Tel +44(0)141 201 8687
Email: Ada.Garcia@glasgow.ac.uk
Word count (main body): 2497
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest
Contributor statement
ALG conceived the study design and supervised data collection and analysis. LC collected data,
undertook analyses, and produced the first draft of the paper. DR collected data and undertook
initial analysis. AP, CMW and ALG helped plan the study and supervised the analyses and write up.
All authors contributed to successive drafts, and have approved the final draft.
Key words
Sugar, snacks, infants, food policy, food marketing, complementary feeding

2
Abstract
Objective
To assess how the baby food market in the UK has changed between 2013 and 2019.
Setting: United Kingdom
Design: A cross sectional survey of all infant food products available to buy in the UK, online and in-
store collected in 2019 to record nutritional content and product descriptions and compared to
existing 2013 data base.
Main outcome measures: change in proportion of products marketed to infants aged 4 months,
proportion classified as sweet versus savoury, spoonable versus dry (snacks), average sugar content.
Results:
Fewer products were described as suitable for infants aged 4 months in 2019 (201, 23%) compared
to 2013 (178, 43%; p<0.001), while the proportion for children in the 6-7 month age range increased
(2013: 135, 33%; 2019: 369 43%; P=0.001).
The proportion of sweet and savoury products was unchanged; sweet spoonable products showed a
small but significant decrease in sugar content (6%) between 2013 and 2019, but savoury spoonable
products showed a 16% increase. Sweet snacks remained very sweet (~20g/100 g median sugar at
both time points) In the 2019 dataset concentrated juice was added to 29% (n=253) of products
and 18% (86) ‘savoury’ products comprised more than 50% sweet vegetables or fruit.
The number and proportion of snacks increased markedly in 2019 (185, 21%) compared with 2013
(42, 10%; P=0.001) while the proportion of wet, spoonable foods decreased (2013 326, 79%; 2019
611 71%; P=0.001).
Conclusions
Fewer foods are now marketed to infants aged four months, but there has been no overall reduction
in sweetness of products and the increase in snack foods and the sweetness of savoury foods is a
concern.

3
What is already known
• In 2013 many commercial baby foods were marketed to infants from age 4 months, despite
recommendations to defer solids feeding till 6 months, and nearly half the products were
sweet.
• Most of the available products were wet spoonable foods provided in jars.
What this study adds
• In 2019 the proportion of foods marketed to infants from age 4 months had dropped
• There was no change in the proportion of sweet foods which had a slightly lower sugar
content, but the sugar content of savoury products has increased.
• Baby snack products are now much more widespread and a majority of wet foods are now
supplied in pouches.

4
Introduction
The transition from an exclusively milk-based diet to solid foods, should be a gradual process
whereby suitable and nutritious family foods are introduced to the infant
1
. If done appropriately,
this will enable growth and development, while promoting future healthy eating habits. Amongst
guidelines on complementary foods, parents are encouraged to offer home-made baby foods
2
but
58% of UK babies received commercial baby foods (CBFs) between 6 and 12 months
2-4
. The food
environment has a prominent influence on parental food choice from an early age. Therefore,
monitoring the marketing and the nutritional quality of CBF is important for promoting infant health
4
, while an understanding of the types of products available is important for clinicians who are
advising individual families.
In 2013 and 2016 we reported concerns on the nutrition quality and recommendations in food labels
of CBF. Major issues were the recommended age of 4 months displayed on packaging, the large
proportion of sweet products, and the large proportion of smooth purees
5 6
. Recently other
important surveys of the CBF market reported similar concerns
4 7
. In our previous survey few of the
products were baby snacks, but high consumption has been reported
3 8
. More recently there has
been an increase in CBFs packaged in pouches, which are mostly fruit based and high in sugar and in
dry foods, advertised as baby snacks
4 5 7 9
. Concerns exist on the implications these products might
have for the development of feeding skills
10 11
.
The dynamics of the CBF market are of interest to health practitioners, consumers, industry and
public health bodies. In 2019 Public Health England
4
and WHO
7
called for an improvement in the
quality and marketing of CBFs and WHO drafted a baby food profiling system to guide legislation and
implementation of their recommendations at European level
12
. Given the changing nature of CBF
market, increased scrutiny, expansion and presence of CBF’s in the food environment, we
hypothesised that the CBF market would have evolved after our initial report in 2013
5
. Therefore,
the aim of this study was to describe characteristics of baby food products available within the UK
market in 2019 compared to 2013 to establish whether there had been (1) a reduction in the
proportion of products marketed to infants below 6 months; (2) a reduction in the proportion of
sweet based products and sugar content; (3) an increase in the proportion of snack products.
Methods
Data collection
Information was gathered on all infant food products available to buy in the UK online and in-store
by two researchers at two time points, January 2019 and September 2019. Online searches of baby
foods in large UK supermarkets Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, ASDA, TESCO and Waitrose were conducted
at the two time points.. Other online retailers consulted were Ocado and Amazon. Online searches
were made using the key word “baby food” and by consulting the baby food section in the
supermarkets and online retailer websites. Data collection was completed with in-store searches of
the baby food aisle of each supermarket to corroborate products and for missing items. In store
visits only were used to collect information of products sold in Aldi and Lidl. For in store visits the
largest supermarkets in Glasgow were selected.