Announcement date
5 August 2024
Link to announcement
Public Consultation: Improving commercial foods for infants and young children - Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care - Citizen Space
Problem being addressed
The nutritional quality of foods for infants and young children is critical as they have high nutrient requirements (relative to their energy needs) to support growth and development. Consumption of commercial foods for infants and young children is common, as parents see these as convenient, economical, and healthy options.
Recent years have seen a significant growth in the market for commercial foods aimed at infants and young children, particularly high energy, low nutrient snack foods. Analysis of products on the market that are targeted for infants and young children found improvements could be made to benefit the dietary intakes of infant and young children consuming these commercial foods. Many of the foods on the market are sweet, fruit based, high in sodium, and do not provide key nutrients for this population group. In addition, the texture of many infant foods doesn’t support developmental progression in feeding. Reviews also identified that labelling does not always support carers to make informed choices, with products names not reflecting the predominant ingredients of the product.
Proposal
The objective of this work is to improve the composition, labelling and texture of commercial foods for infants and young children to better align infant and young child diets with Australian and New Zealand infant and toddler feeding guidelines.
The CRIS canvasses the options: maintaining the status quo; non-regulatory approaches; and regulatory approaches. The options are not mutually exclusive and more than one option could be pursued.
Policy Options
Option 1 – Status Quo. Current regulations include requirements and restrictions for the composition and labelling of some categories of commercial foods for infants, with fewer requirements for the range of foods aimed at young children. Regulations do not cover texture of commercial foods for infants and young children.
Option 2 - Non-regulatory approaches
This option could include establishing guidance to support industry to voluntarily improve the composition and labelling of foods for infants and young children, such as by developing voluntary codes, resources, and guidance for industry. This may also include expanding existing reformulation programs in Australia and New Zealand to include commercial foods for infants and young children.
Option 3 - Regulatory approaches
Under this option, Government could review, develop and/or enhance compositional and labelling regulations for commercial foods for infants and young children. Under a regulatory approach, all relevant food products would be required to adhere to the requirements on labelling and composition, therefore increasing the reach and impact of improvements to foods for infants and young children. This option achieves consistent adoption of the regulations and a level playing field because it is not dependent on industry voluntarily changing their products.
Assessment
Compliant