Types of fruits and vegetables used in commercial baby foods and their contribution to sugar content

Garcia, A. L. , McLean, K. and Wright, C. M. (2016) Types of fruits and vegetables used in commercial baby foods and their contribution to sugar content. Maternal and Child Nutrition, 12(4), pp. 838-847. (doi: 10.1111/mcn.12208) (PMID:26299640)

Abstract

Fruits and vegetables (F&V) are often featured in names of commercial baby foods (CBFs). We aimed to survey all available CBFs in the UK market with F&V included in the food name in order to describe the amount and types of F&V used in CBF and their contribution to total sugar content. Food labels were used to identify F&V and total sugar content. Fruits were more common than vegetables in names of the 329 CBFs identified. The six most common F&V in the names were all relatively sweet: apple, banana, tomato, mango, carrot and sweet potato. The percentage of F&V in the foods ranged from a median of 94% for sweet-spoonable to 13% for dry-savoury products. Fruit content of sweet foods (n = 177) was higher than vegetable content of savoury foods (n = 152) with a median (IQR) of 64.0 g/100 g (33.0–100.0) vs. 46.0 g/100 g (33–56.7). Fruit juice was added to 18% of products. The proportion of F&V in CBF correlated significantly with sugar content for all the food types except dry-savoury food (sweet-spoonable r = 0.24, P = 0.006; savoury-spoonable r = 0.65, P < 0.001; sweet-dry r = 0.81, P < 0.001; savoury-dry r = 0.51, P = 0.06) and explained up to two-thirds of the variation in sugar content. The F&V content of CBFs mainly consists of fruits and relatively sweet vegetables which are unlikely to encourage preferences for bitter-tasting vegetables or other non-sweet foods. F&V contribute significantly to the total sugar content, particularly of savoury foods.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wright, Professor Charlotte and Garcia, Dr Ada
• Authors: Garcia, A. L., McLean, K., and Wright, C. M.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Medicine, Dentistry & Nursing
• Journal Name: Maternal and Child Nutrition
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 1740-8695
• ISSN (Online): 1740-8709
• Published Online: 23 August 2015
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 Wiley
• First Published: First published in Maternal and Child Nutrition 12(4):838-847
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher