I find the labelling of Bellamy’s Organic Babby Porridge very confussion and possibly misleading. It tastes extremely sweet. When I check the ingredients list, the third ingredient is Organic Apple puree (12%). The Nutritional information panel however shows sugars as only 1.2g per 100g when prepared. Its Serving suggestion indicates 14g of dry ingredients with 80g of water which is quite sloppy. The mixing guide says 2 tablespoons (14g) of dry ingredients with 4 tablespoons of water. It is not clear whether this is as per the serving suggestion. It also, suggests increasing the thickness of the cereal with the babies appetite which will make it more sweeter than given in the nutritional information. My guess is that this product probably contains more sugar than is health for babies. Unfortunately labelling does not give any recommended daily allowance. Can anyone please advise it this product is as healthy as it is made out to be?
Hi @ValD, welcome to the community. You do pose an interesting question.
Looking at the label online, I couldn’t see where it says it was healthy. Unfortunately organic products are thought of as being healthy, but this is incorrect…as there are organic sugars, salts and oils/fats. The organic versions of these are no different health wise to those farmed conventionally.
The label says no ‘added sugar’, with the ingredients…
Organic grains (oats, corn) (83.2%), organic pear juice (16.6%), mineral (iron), vitamin C, herb. Total organic ingredient = 99.8%
While technically no cane or beet sugar was added, the fruit puree/juice is a form of sweetener and is loaded with sugar.
What is misleading is the nutritional panel only shows the values based on how they have prepared the porridge to minimise sugar content of the made product. There are no values for the contents. These made up porridge (pun intended) are designed to make the product seem healthier than it possibly is and is misleading.
Thanks for bringing it to Choice’s attention. Choice (@LindaPrzhedetsky and @kday) has been actively lobbying for better sugar labelling…
This is another example of deliberately deceptive sugar labelling, from a company that should know better.
Another example too of how the campaign to treat ‘added’ sugar differently is misguided. One problem is there is no way to effectively define it (so the system can be gamed) and the other is from a dietary point of view it doesn’t matter.
Pear juice is an industry standard sweetener. It is loaded with sugars. You will find products (such as canned fruit) labelled ‘in natural fruit juice’. The fruit could be peaches, mangoes or many others but mostly the juice is pear unless they explicitly say otherwise. It sounds ‘natural’ and it is cheap. It is still a lot of sugar which will make you fat if taken in excess just the same and put up your blood sugar just the same.
On the plus side 7.2% sugar is about middle of the road for breakfast cereal, there are plenty that are much higher. There are also some much lower. At $32 per kg this is very expensive cereal. You can get nonames rolled oats for about $2/kg. Buzz it in a food processor and it will cook very quickly and be smooth and easy for little ones to eat. 1.1 % sugar.
It may be much healthier if you make up your own baby porridge, and then you will know exactly what is in it. You can put the oats and fruit into a blender, before or after cooking, to bring them down to the right texture for your baby.
As a by the way, there is no evidence that organic is any healthier than ‘normal’ food. Organic just means that they haven’t used synthesised chemicals, but that doesn’t stop the use of naturally occuring chemicals. If you want to know more about this, have a search through the topics (using the magnifiyng glass), and you will find lots.
Whilst it may be middle of the road for cereals, many dieticians warn not to give an infant a lot of sugar as can have long term health consequences and also make a child have a sweeter palate in future life.
Our paediatrician strongly suggested avoiding any foods with added sugar or sweet in the first 2 years. This included things like juices through to sweetened dairy products etc.
Agree, and can also be done with a glutinous brown rice. Blend and mix with warm water or breast milk/formula.
