Low allergen content of commercial baby foods
Date
2020
Authors
Netting, M.J.
Gold, M.S.
Palmer, D.J.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2020; 56(10):1613-1617
Statement of Responsibility
Merryn J Netting, Michael S Gold and Debra J Palmer
Conference Name
Abstract
Aim:Introduction of allergenic solid foods, especially peanut and hen’s egg reduces the risk of food allergy development in early childhood.Ideally, parents will offer their infants home-prepared foods; however, many rely on the availability of convenient ready to purchase infant foods.This audit aimed to assess the major food allergen content of commercial infant foods.Methods:Infant foods available for sale in 2019 in Australia were the focus of this audit. The major food allergens investigated were peanut,tree nuts, hen’s egg, cows milk, wheat,fish, shellfish, soy, sesame and lupin. Websites of infant food manufacturers and major supermarketswere used to identify ingredient lists of infant foods available for purchase. Where ingredients listings were unavailable this information was sou-rced directly from the product labels in the supermarket.Results:Fourteen companies were identified, manufacturing over 251 foods specifically for the infants aged less than 1 year of age. Althoughthere were many choices available containing wheat (27 products) and cows milk proteins (73 products), none contained peanut, tree nuts, ses-ame, shellfish or lupin.Conclusions:Despite infant feeding advice encouraging early introduction to food allergens, of 251 commercial baby foods surveyed only 1%contained egg and none contained peanut, the most common food allergies in young Australian infants. This low food allergen content may bedisadvantageous for infants fed mostly commercial infant foods as they are unlikely to be exposed to sufficient amounts of the major food aller-gens on a regular basis during infancy
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
First published: 14 August 2020
Access Status
Rights
© 2020 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (The Royal Australasian College of Physicians)