Babyfood brands have vowed to improve their ranges after a BBC Panorama documentary highlighted high levels of sugar and poor nutrients.
Panorama’s investigation, which aired this week, found Ella’s Kitchen’s Bananas & Apples 120g pouch contained 19.6g of sugar – equivalent to four teaspoons.
Meanwhile, its Spag Bol 130g provided only 0.7mg of the recommended 7.8mg iron an infant needs per day – despite the brand’s savoury pouches being touted as “perfectly balanced for growing babies”.
Piccolo was also called out for poor nutrition in certain lines. Panorama found its Pure Mango 70g pouch provided less than 0.1mg of vitamin C, despite the same amount of fresh mango containing 18.2mg of vitamin C.
When approached by The Grocer, an Ella’s Kitchen spokeswoman stressed its products went “above and beyond all legal requirements”.
The Hain Celestial-owned brand worked “with nutritionists and child development experts to ensure our products are safe”, the spokeswoman insisted.
“That said, we know we can always do more to improve nutrition in the early years,” she added.
In March, Ella’s Kitchen announced it was increasing the recommended age on its weaning pouches from four months to six months in line with NHS and WHO guidance.
It has also launched “a dedicated project that will see us not only further reduce sugar content, but also introduce a greater variety of vegetables and a wider range of textures into our products”.
A spokeswoman for Piccolo said: “While we disagree with how our products were portrayed… we want to assure that from day one our mission has been to raise the bar in babyfood.
“We are introducing new fruit and vegetable pouches this year and are phasing out some of the higher sugar ones.”
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