Nutrient Content of Squeeze Pouch Foods for Infants and Toddlers Sold in the United States in 2015

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 11; no. 7; p. 1689
• Main Authors: Beauregard, Jennifer L, Bates, Marlana, Cogswell, Mary E, Nelson, Jennifer M, Hamner, Heather C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 23-07-2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Age Factors; Ascorbic acid; Babies; Baby foods; Calcium; Calories; Carbohydrates; Cardiovascular diseases; Caregivers; CFR; Chi-square test; Chronic illnesses; complementary feeding; Confidence intervals; Coronary artery disease; Dietary Sugars - analysis; Disease control; Disease prevention; Energy Intake; Epidemics; Epidemiology; Female; Food Packaging; Food products; Fruits; Health promotion; Heart diseases; Humans; Infant; Infant Food - analysis; Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Infants; Iron; Legumes; Male; Meat; Milk; Nutrient content; Nutrition; Nutritional Status; Nutritive Value; Packaging; Physical activity; Preschool children; Prevention; Proteins; Public health; Recommended Dietary Allowances; Retinene; Sodium; Statistical analysis; Statistical significance; Statistical tests; Stroke; Sugar; toddler; Toddlers; United States; Vegetables; Vitamin A; Websites; Yogurt; United States; Atlanta Georgia; United States > US; nutrition; toddler; complementary feeding; infant
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu11071689

To describe the availability and nutrient composition of U.S. commercially available squeeze pouch infant and toddler foods in 2015.
Data were from information presented on nutrition labels for 703 ready-to-serve, pureed food products from 24 major U.S. infant and toddler food brands. We described nutritional components (e.g., calories, fat) and compared them between packaging types (squeeze pouch versus other packaging types) within food categories.
397 (56%) of the analyzed food products were packaged as squeeze pouches. Differences in 13 nutritional components between squeeze pouch versus other packaging types were generally small and varied by food category. Squeeze pouches in the fruits and vegetables, fruit-based, and vegetable-based categories were more likely to contain added sugars than other package types.
In 2015, squeeze pouches were prevalent in the U.S. commercial infant and toddler food market. Nutrient composition differed between squeeze pouches and other packaging types for some macro- and micronutrients. Although it is recommended that infants and toddlers under two years old not consume any added sugars, a specific area of concern may be the inclusion of sources of added sugar in squeeze pouches. Linking this information with children's dietary intake would facilitate understanding how these differences affect overall diet quality.