Food for babies... US fails....

[Maxmars]

I am inclined to blame commerce.

Because in most of these things, we often overlook, or take for granted that baby food comes from a store.  Stores do not make baby food.  They are not responsible for its formulation. They 'sell' it.

Formulation itself is another "taken for granted" thing.  Given the object of commerce is revenue, the more efficiently you spend to create your product, the more surpluses you'll see in your revenue stream.  So there is a natural tendency to value profit over substance (and not just in baby food.)

But baby food is a consumer product now, and it is specifically for the single most vulnerable and dependent individuals in every single culture and community on the planet.  I can understand how the product degrades under that paradigm... 

But "degrade" how much? How far?

According to the report... when compared to the internationally-recommended values, U.S. baby food compare thusly;

Insofar as meeting that standard US baby food appears as follows:
 

• 60% of the U.S. market food products studied did not meet international nutritional guidelines for babies or toddlers.
  
• 70% of them did not meet protein guidelines
  
• 44% of them had more sugar than is recommended
  
• (just 7% of the products they tested met sugar recommendations.)
  
• Approximately 25% did not meet calorie requirements
  
• 99.4% suffered from packaging misinformation where the products tested had at least one false claim and some had as many as 11.
  

Where's the FDA in all this?  Don't ask... That's private food industry business...

From MedicalXpress:  Researchers find 60% of infant and toddler foods sold in US do not meet desired nutritional standards

 

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In their paper, published in the journal Nutrients, the group describes how they analyzed nutritional data for 651 infant and toddler food products for sale by the top eight U.S. supermarket chains in the United States and what they found when they compared the data with internationally recognized nutritional guidelines.

The work by the researchers on this new effort started when it came to their attention that despite parental concerns regarding the increasing popularity and health impacts of commercial foods marketed for infants and toddlers, no governmental nutritional guidelines currently exist in the United States. That made them wonder about the nutritional value of such foods.

To learn more, they traveled to the U.S. and purchased 669 toddler and baby food items from eight of the most popular grocery chains in Raleigh, North Carolina. They then scanned the barcodes on each of the food items using FoodSwitch to get a list of the materials and nutritional facts for each of the products under study.

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I wonder if breastfeeding and preparing infant and toddler food at home could offset this? 

I have to call out that famous quote... "I believe the children are our future..."  We really shouldn't allow commerce to rule over those we must protect and nurture.

[Karl12]

Where's the FDA in all this? Don't ask...

Good question - went down this rabbit hole a while back and apparently samples of baby food taken from Gerber, Beech-Nut, Earth's Best Organic and HappyBABY were all found to contain dangerously high levels of Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium and Mercury.

Leading baby food manufacturers knowingly sold products with high levels of toxic metals, a congressional investigation found


Internal documents from major baby food manufacturers show they tested and used ingredients with high levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury in the baby food they sold to parents, according to a congressional investigation.

Leading baby food manufacturers knowingly sold products with high levels of toxic metals, a congressional investigation found

(CNN)Four leading baby food manufacturers knowingly sold baby food that contained high levels of toxic heavy metals, according to internal company documents included in a congressional investigation released Thursday.

"Dangerous levels of toxic metals like arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury exist in baby foods at levels that exceed what experts and governing bodies say are permissible," said Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, chair of the House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, which conducted the investigation, signed by the Democratic members.

Krishnamoorthi said the spreadsheets provided by manufacturers are "shocking" because they show evidence that some baby foods contain hundreds of parts per billion of dangerous metals. "Yet we know that in a lot of cases, we should not have anything more than single digit parts per billion of any of these metals in any of our foods," he told CNN.

link

Apparently Walmart, Campbells and Sprout Organic refused to cooperate with the government investigation.

Then there’s this: three other companies – Walmart, which sells baby food through its brand Parent’s Choice; Campbell, which owned Plum Organic at the time of the investigation; and Sprout Organic Food – “refused to cooperate” with the investigation. The House subcommittee on economic and consumer policy, which released its findings in February, said it was “greatly concerned” that those companies’ “lack of cooperation might be obscuring the presence of even higher levels of toxic heavy metals in their baby food products than their competitors’ products”.

Why are there dangerous levels of arsenic and lead in American baby food?

QUOTE

Effects on children:

We know that arsenic is a carcinogen and that it can impair neurodevelopment in children even at low levels. Arsenic is also associated with lung disease, heart attacks and kidney failure. Similarly, lead is known to alter brain development in children, reducing attention span and intelligence and increasing the likelihood of antisocial behavior. Cadmium is linked to kidney and gastrointestinal diseases, DNA impairment, cancer, osteoporosis and immune system deficiencies.

[Notably0ffbeat]

My first born wouldn't take formula, tried each one available and she didn't take to any of them. So we made our own. Had goat milk and coconut milk and some other ingredients. We also processed and fed her foods we ate as well as soon as she was able to take solid foods. She grew and was in the top of her percentile each doctor visit and we didn't have to worry about projectile vomiting constantly. The price was similar or possibly cheaper than the premade stuff. Especially once most of the ingredients was initially sourced.

So options are out there, does take more effort though