Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1309486
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS Cases 7917 Active 2120 Recoveries 5702 Deaths 95 Swabs 380,009 LATEST COVID-19 www.maltatoday.com.mt/covid19 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The study revealed that 88 (36%) out of the 243 food prod- ucts tested were found to con- tain the recommended levels of sugar, salt and other nutrition- al contents. "The findings suggest that the quality of most of the food and beverages marketed for infants and young children current- ly available on the local mar- ket are not suitable for infants and young children in this age group." The products were tested ac- cording to nutritional stand- ards and criteria established by the World Health Organi- sation's Regional Office for Eu- rope which has recently devel- oped a 'nutrient profile model' (NPM) identifying products appropriate for promotion for infants and young children. Inadequate nutrition con- tributes to the development of childhood obesity in a country where around 35% of girls and 37% of boys are overweight or obese. Since children and babies have an innate preference for sweet tastes and dislike bitter and sour flavours, "early and repeated exposure to sweet foods is particularly worry- ing as it may further reinforce sweet preferences," the authors of the study, published in the Malta Medical Journal, said. The study was limited to foods marketed for children aged six to 36 months, which included dry powdered food, soft-wet spoonable, smooth or semi-puréed foods packaged in jars or pouches and can be spoonfed, meals with chunky pieces, often sold in trays or pots, dry finger foods and snacks, juices and other drinks. The World Health Organi- sation guidelines specify that products marketed as suitable for this age group should not contain any added sugars or other sweetening agents, and that the maximum permitted sodium content was set to be 50 mg/100 kcal and 50 mg/100 g. The food categories that were least likely to meet the WHO guidelines were the soft-wet spoonable, ready to eat foods (33%) and the dry finger foods and snacks (18%). Of this latter category, only 37% had no add- ed sugars and only around half of these products (47%) had less than 15% of total energy from sugar. The confectionery and bars, as well as the rusks and teething biscuits, did not meet any requirements relating to sugar content. On the sodium content, the one tray/pot meal examined with chunky meat or fish ex- ceeded the recommended lev- els for salt and did not meet any of the WHO requirements. Also, only 66% of the dry finger foods and snacks fell below the recommended sodium levels. Another concern was relat- ed to the low quantity of pro- tein in these products, namely in the soft-wet spoonable and ready to eat foods, with only 25% meeting the protein re- quirements. 82 products out of a total 243 products (34%) were found to be promoted as suitable for in- fants under 6 months which is in breach of WHO guidelines which recommends breast feeding before six months. The study was authored by Lucienne Pace and Charlene Vassallo, from the Health Pro- motion and Disease Prevention Department, Julianne Williams Margarida Bica and Krem- lin Wickramasinghe from the WHO regional office in Europe and Janet E. Cade from the University of Leeds. Most infant food and beverages on market unsuitable "The findings suggest that the quality of most of the food and beverages marketed for infants and young children currently available on the local market are not suitable for infants and young children in this age group."