More than half of baby foods checked fall short of Government guidelines, new analysis claims

Researchers say 58% of baby foods checked breach voluntary guidelines on sugar, ingredients, labelling or marketing.

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Published: August 27, 2026 at 11:23 AM

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Parents navigating the baby food aisle are being warned that packaging may not always tell the full story, after a new analysis found 58% of the products it checked fell short of at least one Government guideline.

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Child nutrition and gut health company Alba Health audited 224 products from nine well-known brands, including Ella's Kitchen, Heinz, HiPP, Organix and Piccolo. It assessed them against voluntary infant food guidelines published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) in August 2025.

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The findings have prompted a group of 24 clinicians, researchers and public figures to call for the voluntary standards to become legally binding. For parents, the findings are a useful reminder to look beyond front-of-pack claims when choosing food for babies and toddlers.

What did the baby food analysis find?

Alba Health says 58% of the 224 products it assessed breached at least one part of the voluntary guidance.

The products were sampled across categories including fruit and vegetable purées, main meals, cereals, breakfasts, desserts, sauces and finger foods. The analysis looked at nine areas, including sugar and sodium levels, ingredients, age labelling, product names and marketing claims.

According to Alba Health, the most common problem was product names that did not accurately reflect the ingredients inside.

It says that in at least 18 cases, the largest single ingredient by weight, often a fruit or vegetable juice concentrate, was not included in the product's name, while another ingredient present in a smaller quantity was used to market it.

Sugar was another concern. The analysis found products exceeding the relevant sugar threshold across eight of the nine brands assessed. In several cases, Alba Health calculated that sugar provided more than 80% of the product's total energy, more than three times the relevant guideline limit for that category.

What does 'no added sugar' actually mean?

This is one area parents may particularly want to watch when reading packaging.

Alba Health says it found at least 14 products where fruit or vegetable juice concentrate was used as a sweetening ingredient despite the products being marketed with a "no added sugar" claim.

That doesn't necessarily mean table sugar has been added. However, the campaign argues that the wording can give parents an incomplete picture of how much sugar a product contains.

Nora Cavani, molecular biologist and CEO and co-founder of Alba Health, which led the analysis and campaign, said parents were being given confusing information when trying to make choices for their children.

Parents are not failing their children — they are being misled. Our own analysis of over 200 leading baby food products found that more than half breach the Government's own voluntary guidelines, most commonly because labelling doesn't reflect what's actually inside. Products that contain more sugar than a child should consume in a day are sold under the banner of health and nature. A year on from the guidelines' introduction, the data shows voluntary standards haven't worked. Now we are asking the Government to make them law.

Nora Cavani, CEO and Co-founder of Alba Health

What are experts asking the Government to change?

A group of 24 signatories, including NHS clinicians and researchers from UCL, Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge, has backed an open letter calling for stronger regulation.

The letter asks the Government to:

The group argues that action should happen before the planned 2027 review of the voluntary guidance.

Professor Willem M. de Vos, a microbiologist and co-founder of Alba Health, is among the signatories and says nutrition during the early years is particularly important for children's development.

Decades of research have made clear that the microbes children acquire in the first years of life shape their immune and metabolic development in ways that persist across a lifetime. The foods used to wean children during this window matter enormously, and it is no longer tenable for regulation to lag so far behind the evidence.

Professor Willem M. de Vos, microbiologist and Co-founder of Alba Health

What should parents look for on baby food labels?

The findings don't mean every packaged baby food is unsuitable, or that every product included in the analysis breached the guidance. The audit was also carried out by Alba Health rather than the Government or an independent regulator.

For parents comparing products, checking the full ingredients and nutrition information can provide more detail than relying solely on descriptions on the front of the pack.

It's also worth remembering that the Government guidance applies differently depending on the type of food and the age it is marketed for. For example, according to Alba Health's methodology, the guideline sugar limits do not apply to 100% fruit or vegetable purées, while restrictions on added sugars and sweetening ingredients apply to products marketed at babies under 12 months.

The analysis used product information from retailers and manufacturers collected in July and August 2026, with Alba Health saying information was checked against at least two sources wherever possible.

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Authors

Ruairidh PritchardDigital Growth Lead

Ruairidh is the Digital Lead on MadeForMums. He works with a team of fantastically talented content creators and subject-matter experts on MadeForMums.

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