Last week, we introduced that the definition and standards of "children's food" need to be improved. This week, we mainly introduce how to correctly treat "children's food" and its safety.

Reasonable meal is better than being keen to children's food

Nutrients that children need during their growth mainly come from their daily diet intake. Nutritional components of most of the current so-called "children's food" is not much different from those of general adult food, in order to cater to children's tastes, more food raw materials or food additives that can optimize the taste of food may be added, like salt, sugar, sweeteners, colorings and food flavorings.

From a nutritional point of view, a balanced diet is an important factor in ensuring nutritional health for both children and adults. It is better to match reasonable diets for children according to the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022).

Food additives such as sweeteners, food flavorings, colorings and preservatives are indicated in some "children's food" ingredients lists. The content of energy, carbohydrates, fat and sodium in the nutrition information will be indicated compulsorily. Try to choose foods with low NRV% of fat and sodium, high NRV% of nutrients such as calcium and vitamins, and no trans fatty acids.

In addition to foods marked with the word "children", daily snacks that children love, especially puffed foods, also need to be noticed.

Although snacks that children love, such as puffed foods, may be produced according to the corresponding national food safety standards and be qualified, these standards are not for children, and long-term consumption of large quantities can still cause adverse reactions.

How safe is "children's food"

According to the sampling inspection of children's favorite foods and some foods marketed to children, including samples of 17 different varieties from 8 categories such as candy, puffed foods and condiments around schools and large supermarkets, the use of sweeteners, preservatives and colorings in all batches of products is compliant.

During the sampling, it was found that at present, foods directly marked with the word "children" were rare, especially large food manufacturers almost all avoided this word. However, there are still operators using images of children or cartoon characters to imply consumers. Some products even confuse concepts through English. For example, a certain type of noodles is marked with high-calcium carrot noodles in Chinese, while the package is marked with "baby noodles" in English. Parents should purchase "children's food" according to their needs and not be influenced by the so-called marketing gimmicks.

Source: China Quality News

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