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Balanced nutrition provides the foundation for good health. The infant food industry works closely with medical experts, nutritionists and international organisations to further scientific knowledge of the special nutritional needs of infants and young children. Constant technological advances have enabled manufacturers to produce ever safer and healthier products to give children the best start in life. These include:
Infant Formula
IFM member companies recognise that exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life is the best way of providing ideal nutrition for healthy growth and development of infants. Breastfeeding also strengthens an infant’s immune system, reducing the incidence and severity of infectious diseases.
Some mothers cannot breastfeed, while others, for personal, cultural, socio-economic or health reasons, choose not to. In these cases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that mothers should be supported in optimising their infant’s nutrition1.
The WHO/Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) Codex Alimentarius Commission, the UN body that sets international standards for foods, recognises that infant formula is the only nutritionally complete substitute for breast milk. While industrially prepared infant formula cannot replicate all the qualities of breast milk, it represents a considerable improvement over traditional substitutes that may be nutritionally inadequate and unsafe. These include unmodified animal milk (from cows, goats or buffaloes) and various types of cereal gruel.
Industrially prepared infant formula is designed for use from birth as a partial or total replacement for breast milk. The Codex Alimentarius defines it as “a product based on milk of cows or other animals and/or other edible constituents of animal, including fish, or plant origin, which have proved to be suitable for infant feeding.” When used as the sole source of nourishment, infant formula must meet all the energy and nutrient requirements of infants during the first six months of life.
The WHO Code specifies that the information supplied with each infant formula product must include a statement highlighting the superiority of breastfeeding. Infant formula is produced in the form of powder to be mixed with safe-to-drink water or in the form of ready-to-use-liquid. Manufacturers provide label instructions in clear and appropriate local languages on how to prepare their product.
In addition to formula for healthy infants, products have also been designed for those with special nutritional requirements, such as babies born prematurely or suffering from a metabolic disorder. The types of special infant formula that doctors can recommend include soya-based and hypoallergenic products.
Foods for Special Medical Purposes
Foods for special medical purposes (FSMPs), also known as clinical nutrition products or medical foods, are dietetic foods designed for persons whose dietary requirements are not satisfied by normal foods. Some of these products are intended for infants and young children who have specific nutritional requirements caused by disease, metabolic disorders, taste alteration or food aversion, swallowing problems, protracted periods of diarrhoea or malabsorption. The survival rates of these “at risk” infants have improved remarkably over the last hundred years due to close cooperation between the scientific and medical communities and the infant food industry.
Complementary Foods
WHO recommends that after an initial six months of exclusive breastfeeding, infants should start receiving nutritionally adequate, safe and appropriate complementary foods, and at the same time continue to be breast-fed to up to two years of age or even beyond. WHO recognises that mothers who are unable or unwilling to follow this recommendation should be supported in optimising the infant’s nutrition.
The WHO Code defines complementary or weaning foods as “any food, whether manufactured or locally prepared, suitable as a complement to breast milk or to infant formula, when either becomes insufficient to satisfy the nutritional requirements of the infant.” They include milk products, home made foods and processed foods (cereal-based or other baby foods, including ready-to-eat preparations.)
Complementary foods should be introduced into the diet when breast-milk or a breast-milk substitute no longer satisfies the infant’s nutritional requirements. During this transition period, the infant’s diet gradually evolves from an exclusive milk diet to a fully diversified diet similar to that of adults. Different tastes and textures are progressively introduced, most often through cereals mixed with the baby’s usual milk or puréed fruit and vegetables. Later, increasingly solid foods are added.
Many mothers, especially those in rural areas of developing countries, prepare complementary foods at home. It is highly unlikely, however, that these natural foods will supply all the calories, iron and other micronutrients needed by infants aged 6-24 months. Infant food manufacturers have developed calorie-dense complementary foods enriched with micronutrients to meet these requirements.
Experts at WHO and other authorities stress the importance of introducing complementary foods at an appropriate age.* If introduced too early or too late, they may inhibit breastfeeding, overburden the infant’s immature metabolism, and, especially in poor communities, increase the risk of contamination. They urge the use of cereal-based and other complementary foods recommended by local medical authorities, and stress that the nutritional needs of the individual infant must be taken into consideration when advising mothers.
To ensure that infants receive the appropriate complementary foods, parents must have full and accurate information. IFM member companies support a policy of providing objective and consistent information on optimal feeding practices to parents and other caregivers.
Range of Products
- Infant formula
- Specialty formulas (soya-based, iron fortified, hypoallergenic, foods for special medical purposes)
- Follow-on formula
- First cereals for infants (single grain cereals made from rice, oatmeal or barley)
- Cereal-based products Baby food in jars (puréed fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, etc.)
- Fruit and vegetable juices
- Rusks, biscuits and other infant products
*As formulated in the conclusions and recommendations of the Expert Consultation on the optimal duration of exclusive breastfeeding, Geneva, 28-30 March 2001 (see document WHO/NHD/01.09).
Last Updated: June 2003
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