Health and nutrition experts called on the government to tighten food regulations after a report published by the food commission today revealed that biscuits and snacks designed for babies and toddlers have a higher sugar content than many comparable adult snack foods.
Despite health warnings to parents, sugary biscuits are the biggest cause of tooth decay in infants aged between one and two years.
The survey by the consumer group, titled Good for Sales, Bad for Babies, found that biscuits aimed at infants had a higher sugar content than some well known adult biscuit brands.
Two manufacturers, Nestlé and Boots the Chemist, were singled out for criticism. Nestlé's Fruit Sticks were found to contain 50% sugar while Boots' Teddy Bear biscuits are 37% sugar, compared with the 36% sugar content in a jam tart. A traditional Farley's Rusk had 29% sugar, against 27% in a chocolate digestive.
The commission also found that snacks claiming to have "reduced sugar" content, including Farley's Rusks and Hipp's First Bites, which are both 21% sugar, were sweeter than a jam doughnut with 19% sugar.
Only five out of the 22 products examined were virtually sugar free.
Tim Lobstein, a co-director of the commission and author of the report, described the snacks as "health hazards", adding: "The baby food regulations are very weak. Manufacturers exploit this in order to label highly sweetened products as specially suitable for infants.
"Parents expect baby foods to be nutritious and safe for their children. Our survey found the majority of baby biscuits to be dangerous for an infant's newly emerging teeth."
New food regulations governing baby foods came into force last year but health experts called for the maximum sugar content to be drastically reduced from the present level of 40% of weight - which can mean up to two teaspoons of sugar in each biscuit.
Biscuits are strongly linked to an increased risk of tooth damage, with 11% of frequent biscuit eaters getting damaged teeth before they are 30 months old, compared with 1% of infants who eat biscuits less than once a day.
Tim Lang, professor of food policy at Thames Valley university, called for the new food standards agency to investigate the "irresponsible" levels of sugar in infant snacks and cereals. He said: "The food industry is actually encouraging the long term problems of high sugar consumption, like tooth decay, diabetes and obesity, which is a key risk factor in coronary heart disease."
Both Nestlé and Boots issued statements defending the sugar content in their products and Sarah Jacobs, spokeswoman for the Infant Dietetic Foods Association, which represents manufacturers, said: "All baby foods are strictly controlled by law and sugar content is kept to a minimum but babies have a very high requirement for carbohydrates and sugars."
The ministry of agriculture, fisheries and food said that although there were concerns over clear labelling, there were no plans to intervene over the content of infant foods.
