John Myers
Strict rules apply to baby food. Vitamins and minerals must be present in the right amounts, certain substances may not occur at all or only in tiny amounts.
The essentials in brief:
- No one-size-fits-all: Choose from the variety of baby food and vary the ingredients.
- Prefer baby porridge without intensive fruit additives and without added sugar and avoid sweetening yourself.
- It is best to warm up ready-made porridge in an open glass in a water bath and stir several times. In this way, as much furan as possible can escape. If you want to avoid furan completely, you should cook the baby food yourself.
- Give baby porridge only at the beginning of the 5th month of life. Alternate between mashed vegetables with high-nitrate and low-nitrate vegetables.
- The important fatty acids arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid should be present in equal amounts in baby milk. A look at the nutritional value table helps here.
Mineral oils in infant milk
Critical mineral oil residues – so-called saturated (MOSH) and aromatic (MOAH) mineral oil hydrocarbons – are repeatedly found in investigations of breast milk substitute products. Both substances are considered to be harmful to health, MOAH even as particularly harmful because they can also include carcinogenic compounds. Mineral oil residues probably get into the product during production, through lubricating grease on machines, or through packaging materials.
There is no way to tell if you are buying a breast milk substitute that contains mineral oil residues. However, no acutely toxic contamination with mineral oil residues could be detected in products tested to date. Current tests show a slightly positive trend compared to earlier ones: the mineral oil contamination has fallen somewhat. So some manufacturers have responded.
Deficiency of arachidonic acid in infant milk
There are clear legal requirements for the nutrients in industrially produced baby milk. Since 2020, a relatively high minimum content of the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid – DHA for short – has been included. Manufacturers could previously add this fatty acid on a voluntary basis, but only in combination with at least the same amount of another fatty acid, the omega-6 fatty acid arachidonic acid (ARA). ARA can still be added to baby milk voluntarily, but unlike DHA, there are no legal requirements for this yet.
The two fatty acids are said to have positive effects on the development of vision and mental development. It seems to be particularly important that both fatty acids are present in equal amounts. At lower levels of ARA, there may be adverse effects on nervous system development and brain composition in infants. Experts therefore demand that baby milk should contain at least as much ARA as DHA in order to ensure these positive effects. Some manufacturers are already voluntarily adding ARA to their products, but there is still room for improvement.
If you want to be sure whether the ratio of DHA to ARA is balanced, a look at the nutritional value table helps: if ARA is given with at least as high a content as DHA, you can assume that the composition of the fatty acids corresponds to the current scientific status recommendations.
Erucic acid in infant milk and baby food
Erucic acid is found in canola oil , but also in other vegetable oils used in the manufacture of infant formula. A long-term high intake of erucic acid can lead to fatty degeneration of the heart. For this reason, the EU Commission has set maximum levels for erucic acid in certain foods – including infant formula and follow-on formula.
The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has estimated and evaluated the health risks for infants from the intake of erucic acid via infant formula and follow-on formula as well as industrially produced supplementary food. According to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, there is no increased health risk for babies between 0 and 12 months. Even if a teaspoon of rapeseed oil is added to baby food – industrially or home-made – no increased health risks are to be expected for infants from the 6th month of life.
Furan – a ready-made porridge problem
Furan is a volatile compound that can form when food is heated. Particularly high levels of furan are detected in finished products that are exposed to high temperatures in closed containers – and thus also in industrially manufactured baby porridges. Because during production, the porridge is sterilized by intense heating – i.e. preserved in the jars – and this is how furan is formed.
The substance, classified by the World Health Organization as possibly carcinogenic, was detected in small quantities in ready-made porridges. According to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment , long-term damage from furan cannot currently be ruled out. However, there is still too little knowledge to set clear limit values for furan in food or safe consumption levels for furan.
Since the occurrence of furan in ready-made porridges cannot be completely avoided, the following applies: the less furan, the better. If you want to avoid furan completely, cook the baby food yourself – preferably with ingredients from organic production. If you want to continue using industrially produced ready-made porridge, heat the porridge in an open glass in a water bath and stir it several times. In this way, as much furan as possible can escape.
Arsenic in rice porridge
If the milk-cereal porridge or the cereal-fruit porridge for babies is prepared with rice, it may contain the critical substance arsenic. During cultivation, the rice plant absorbs the semi-metal from the soil. Large amounts of inorganic arsenic can cause cancer. But even the regular intake of small amounts can be harmful to health and damage vessels and nerves and promote cardiovascular diseases.
Babies are particularly affected by health-problematic amounts of arsenic, since rice porridge can contain relatively high levels of inorganic arsenic. For this reason, new maximum levels for inorganic arsenic in rice and products made from rice, such as rice biscuits, rice cakes, rice crackers and rice cakes, have been in force in the European Union since January 1, 2016. Special requirements apply to rice used in the manufacture of foods for infants and young children. The maximum levels for these foods are significantly lower than those for other rice products.
In order to avoid excessive exposure to arsenic, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment recommends that parents do not feed their infants and young children exclusively with complementary foods such as rice porridge or rice-based drinks such as rice milk. Such products should be consumed in moderation, alternating with foods made from other grains. So you don’t have to do without rice altogether.
Unnecessary sweetness in baby food
Ready-made porridges for babies often contain plenty of sugar and intensive fruit powder, which are supposed to give the porridge more flavor and aroma. But sugar in particular is considered to be the cause of obesity and should not be added to baby food in large quantities. Fruit powders, such as apple, banana or pear additives, are also used by manufacturers to “sweeten” the porridge. However, experts consider flavoring ingredients to be superfluous and clearly advise against using intensely sweet-tasting baby food. Too much sweetness can adversely affect babies’ and toddlers’ long-term taste preferences, allowing them to develop an increased liking for sugar and sugary foods from an early age.
It is therefore best to choose baby porridge without added sugar and flavoring ingredients such as fruit powder, cocoa or chocolate. Also, refrain from adding sweeteners yourself.
Nitrate in vegetable pulp
Another problem is nitrate, which can be found in baby food containing vegetables. Nitrate is a natural component of soil and is used as a fertilizer in agriculture. Nitrate gets into vegetables and drinking water via the soil. However, it is not the nitrate itself that is critical here, but much more the substances that arise from it in the body. In this way, nitrate can be converted to nitrite in the body , to which infants are particularly sensitive. Nitrate can also be formed from nitrate during the storage, processing and preparation of food. Too much of it can impair blood oxygenation in infants. Nitrosamines can in turn be formed from nitrite, which have been shown to cause cancer in animal experiments. It is still unclear to what extent this also applies to the human organism.
A legal limit has been set for the nitrate content in baby food in order to protect this particularly sensitive group of people: complementary food may contain a maximum of 200 mg/kg nitrate. Previous studies of industrially produced vegetable porridges have shown that the nitrate contamination is very low, so that parents can offer their children these porridges without any worries. The very little ones – under five months – should generally not eat any vegetables with a particularly high nitrate content, which corresponds to the recommendation to only give complementary food at the beginning of the 5th month of life.
Vegetables rich in nitrates include spinach and kohlrabi in particular. Children suffering from bacterial gastrointestinal infections should also not eat foods rich in nitrates. Because the risk of an oxygen deficiency is increased – caused by a stronger conversion of nitrate to nitrite.
However, parents should not be afraid of nitrates in food. According to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, the benefit of a high proportion of vegetables in the diet far outweighs the possible risk from nitrate and nitrite levels.
There are a few tips to keep the amount of nitrate in baby food – whether bought or homemade – low:
- We recommend alternating between high-nitrate and low-nitrate vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes and broccoli.
- Combining nitrate-rich meals with foods containing vitamin C (e.g. lemon juice) counteracts the conversion of nitrate to nitrite.
- Always wash vegetables thoroughly. For leafy greens, remove the outer leaves and stems. These are particularly high in nitrate.
- Cooking vegetables reduces nitrate levels. The cooking water should then be discarded. Caution: Cooking in the microwave does not reduce the nitrate content.
- Fresh vegetables should only be stored for a short time and always in a cool place.
- Vegetable purees and nitrate-rich foods for the baby should not be kept warm for long periods of time and should not be reheated either. This allows germs to multiply or nitrite to form.
- Seasonal outdoor vegetables contain less nitrate than greenhouse vegetables.
- Drinking water also contains nitrate – parents should therefore inquire about the nitrate content of their tap water from their responsible water supplier, the health department or the municipality.
Tropane alkaloids in cereal porridges
Tropane alkaloids are natural plant compounds found in certain weeds growing on grain fields. So it can happen that they are harvested with the grain and the seeds and plant parts get under the grain kernels. In this way, tropane alkaloids can find their way into grain-based foods such as baby food. Among the best-studied representatives of this group of substances are atropine and scopolamine, which, even in small amounts, can affect heart rate and the central nervous system and cause drowsiness, headaches and nausea. In 2014, residues of atropine and scopolamine were found in baby food, leading to a Europe-wide alert and the recall of the affected products.
In 2016, the European Commission set a limit for processed cereal-based foods and other baby foods for infants and young children that contain millet, buckwheat or products derived from them. The limit for atropine and scopolamine is 1 µg/kg each.
In agriculture, attempts are increasingly being made to prevent the spread of weeds on fields or to avoid them altogether. In the most recent investigations, no levels of tropane alkaloids could be detected in baby and toddler food containing cereals.
