Disclaimer: The following article was originally published by China Quality News Network.
Nowadays, parents pay more and more attention to the safety of baby diets, and some enterprises have opportunistically developed so-called foods for baby consumption, such as baby milk, baby noodles, baby soy sauce, etc. But does the term “baby food” actually hold any standing? And how safe is “baby food,” exactly? What are China’s baby food packaging regulations?
For this occasion, three members from the Jiangsu Provincial Food Safety Committee Clinical Subcommittee, namely Gao Xiangling, Huang Jie, and Sun Guiju, were invited to provide a professional interpretation of “baby food” from various angles. The Jiangsu Provincial Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Institute was commissioned to conduct sampling tests on foods that children commonly consume in daily life to understand their food safety status.
“Baby food” is just a colloquial term
What age group constitutes as children? Gao Xiangling, a member of the Provincial Food Safety Committee Clinical Subcommittee, informed us that currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) and different countries do not have a clear and unified age criterion for children. In China, the concept of “Baby Milk Powder” is present only in the national food safety standard “Standards for the Use of Food Nutrition Fortifiers” (GB 14880), referring to “formulated milk powders consumed by populations aged between 36 months to under 15 years.” Then, is there a concept or standard for baby food? The answer is no. Gao Xiangling stated that China’s national food safety standards do not propose any food safety requirements different from adults for the 3- to 15-year-old age group. This means that most products on the market labeled as “baby” fall under the category of regular food, and there is no difference regarding their safety or nutritional content. Products bearing the label “baby”, like baby soy sauce, baby pork floss, baby dumplings, baby snacks, etc., are merely marketing ploys.
However, there are a few special cases:
- “Children’s Milk Powder” mentioned in the “National Food Safety Standard Use Standard for Food Nutrition Fortification” (GB 14880-2012).
- The “General Principles for the Formulation of Foods for Special Medical Purposes” (GB 29922) in the National Food Safety Standards divide the applicable population age range into 1-10 years old and above 10 years old.
- “Complementary Food Nutritional Supplements” (GB 22570) in the National Food Safety Standards apply to infants and young children aged 6 to 36 months and children aged 37 to 60 months.
The above three standards, although involving the term children or related age groups, do not categorically classify them as “baby food,” meaning there is currently no national food safety standard reflecting the real attributes of a dedicated name “baby food.”
Likewise, there is no concept and standard for baby health food. All health foods in China must comply with the “National Food Safety Standard Health Foods” (GB 16740) and the quality requirements of the health food registration or filing documents. Nutrient supplements designated for specific age groups should indicate the specific population (such as age group) and be consistent with the suitable population, and cannot be named as “baby health food.” In addition, “baby health products,” similar to “health products,” do not have relevant legal regulations, standards, or normative bases in China.
Standards for “children” named foods are still awaiting improvement
Since there are no standards for “baby food,” is it illegal for products to be labeled as baby food (such as baby noodles, baby soy sauce)?
Huang Jie said: “Currently, China’s legal system explicitly permits food named ‘Infant and Young Children’ (such as infant formula and special medical purposes for infants and young children formula) as one of the special foods, which is under strict management. It must be produced according to the specific national food safety standard, registered or filed product formula, production process, and other technical requirements. Auxiliary foods for infants and young children do not require registration. All the above foods must be produced in accordance with the designated national food safety standards. The food labels and identities of the registered infant foods are part of the registered content, which has strict and standardized texts, and enterprises are not allowed to modify the claimed content arbitrarily.”
However, since the current mandatory standards related to ordinary food labeling do not explicitly forbid foods named “children,” some market-available ordinary food labels are often crowned with “children” or imply that they have certain functions or effects for children, mostly walking on the edge of existing regulatory standards. Some are misleading to the relevant consumer groups due to improper claims.
Huang Jie mentioned that in order to protect consumers’ lawful rights and interests and to stop and correct these behaviors, in recent years, the National Standard Review Committee for Food Safety and the State Administration for Market Regulation have drafted related documents and published drafts for comment. They clearly stipulate: “If it’s not specified in laws, regulations, rules, and food safety standards, the food labeling should not use texts or images to directly indicate, imply or emphasize that the product is suitable for specific groups such as infants, children, elderly, pregnant women, etc.”
It’s better to balance diets for children than to be keen on purchasing “baby food”
Children require more nutrients during their growth stages, which mostly come from their daily dietary intake. Sun Guiju pointed out that the nutritional components of most so-called “baby foods” are not very different from those of ordinary adult foods. To cater to baby tastes, they may add more salt, sugar, sweeteners, coloring agents, and food flavorings or other tastebud-enhancing food materials or additives.
From a nutritional perspective, whether for children or adults, a balanced diet is an important factor in ensuring nutritional health. Parents, rather than being keen on buying “baby food” for their kids, should opt to balance their baby diets according to the “Chinese Dietary Guidelines (2022),” to achieve nutritional balance.
Sun Guiju especially pointed out that if parents purchase pre-packaged food for their children, they should definitely read the labels and see the food ingredients and nutrition labels. For example, some “baby food” labels contain food additives such as sweeteners, flavors, coloring agents, and preservatives. The nutrition label must mandatorily indicate the content of energy, carbohydrates, fats, and sodium. It’s advisable to select foods lower in fats and sodium NRV%, with higher NRV% of nutrients like calcium, vitamins, and without trans fatty acids.
Apart from the edge-case “children” labeled products, daily snacks that children love, especially like spicy strips and puffed food, should also draw parents’ attention.
Of course, snacks loved by children like spicy strips and puffed food may be produced according to the corresponding national food safety standards and be compliant, but these standards are not specifically for children. Long-term and excessive consumption can still cause adverse reactions, so it’s better for children to consume less of these foods.
Seeing is believing – How safe is “baby food”?
The three subcommittee members interpreted the foods that children often come into contact with from different perspectives. However, the use of food additives in these foods is still a point of concern and worry for parents.
For this purpose, this episode of “Food Talk” in conjunction with the Provincial Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Research Institute, conducted sampling tests on baby favorite foods, as well as some marketed as children-centric, to see if the use of sweeteners, preservatives, and coloring agents – three common types of food additives – is safe and regulated.
In the areas around schools and large supermarkets, we purchased 17 different samples from 8 major categories including candy, biscuits, milk, beverages, puffed foods, seasonings, seasoned noodle products (spicy snacks), and grain products for testing. All batches of products were in accordance with standards for sweeteners, preservatives, and coloring agents.
We found that currently, the direct labeling of “children” on food products is rare, especially among large food production companies, which almost all avoid such labeling. However, some businesses still use children or cartoon character images to entice consumers. Some products even use English to confuse concepts; for example, a type of noodles labeled in Chinese as high-calcium carrot noodles, while on the packaging it’s labeled in English as baby noodles (baby noodles). Parents should buy according to their needs and not be influenced by so-called marketing gimmicks.
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