Retailers defend themselves: Consumer protection criticizes sugar content in baby food

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There is only the best for your child: porridge, biscuits or fruit bags. However, the Consumer Protection Foundation found that many of these products contain too much sugar.

This is the conclusion of a market test. Consumer protection attacks retailers for “a large number of products on the shelves of Migros, Coop, Aldi and Lidl contravene requirements”.

For example, there are 25 grams of sugar in 100 grams of Galactina brand children’s biscuits. The sugar content in 100 grams of Holle brand apple-banana fruit bar goes up to 46 grams!

Packaging “misleading”

A preference for sugar can then lead to overweight and obesity, a condition that affects one in six children today. This is why the Consumer Protection Foundation is particularly disturbed by packaging labels such as “no added sugar”, “sweetened only with fruit” or “100% fruit”. “This statement is misleading in terms of consumer protection,” the statement said.

Consumer protection therefore demands expansion of nutritional requirements for young children’s products. Additionally, packaging should only appeal to children if it is balanced in accordance with WHO specifications. Health claims about sugar, minerals or vitamins should only be allowed if the products are balanced.

Upon Blick’s question, Coop stated that the products criticized were branded products, not their own brands. For private brands like Jamadu, there will be strict rules regarding the recipe. “We constantly check our recipes for sugar content and make adjustments if necessary,” says a spokesperson. Coop would also introduce stricter advertising and packaging regulations for its own brands on foods containing salt, sugar or fat that appeal to children.

Migros finds criticism of its own products unfair

Migros stated that it has implemented many measures to reduce sugar in its own brand products in recent years upon request. In doing so, it complies, among other things, with the information of the Federal Office for Food Safety and Veterinary Affairs, which states that products containing added sugars should be avoided in the first year of life.

Four products of Mibébé’s own brand, which were criticized by consumer protection, were also implemented in line with these recommendations. “We cannot understand why the ‘no added sugar’ claim for these products is problematic,” the company writes. The composition of the products is absolutely comparable to the composition of fruit purees made at home without added sugar. However, Migros sees consumer protection demands for stricter nutritional requirements for baby foods as fundamentally justified.

Sugar is also a hotly debated issue in parliament. A sugar tax has always been rejected by Parliament, but an alliance of health organizations is calling for a tax on sweet drinks.

Source :Blick