Supplements & functional ingredients
nutritionally modified formula milk with those who were given standard formula. Both groups had the same academic performance by age 16, indicating that the added ingredients had no long-term benefits for brain development.
It should be stressed that the data was collated several decades ago, and new types of formulas have been developed since then. However, this study does suggest that some of the more extreme marketing claims should be treated with a measure of caution. This point was made more emphatically by the WHO and Unicef in their recent joint report ‘How the marketing of formula milk influences our decisions on infant feeding’. The report stated that more than half of parents and pregnant women had been exposed to aggressive formula milk marketing, which undermined women’s confidence in their ability to breastfeed successfully.
Researchers still do not know if bioactives in formula milk are ‘hype’ or provide real benefit to babies.
“In a competitive marketplace, people will simply add whatever gets approved and away we go,” Abrams explains.
“Each manufacturer claims their ingredient makes the formula perfect, or closest to breast milk, but we don’t have the types of long-term studies needed.”
Dealing with data
In terms of the research that has been conducted, a 2021 Brazilian literature review, published in the International Journal of Food Science, found that “although the infant food industry has advanced in the last years, there is no consensus on whether novel bioactive ingredients added to infant formulas have the same functional effects as the compounds found in human milk”. In other words, further studies are needed.
“The World Health Organisation has very strict limits on how infant formula can be marketed, but the United States is not following that marketing.”
Another recent meta-analysis from University College London compared babies who were given
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The WHO maintains that much of this marketing is in breach of international standards on infant feeding practices and is based on “false and misleading messages”. For instance, an unscrupulous brand may claim that breast milk is inadequate for infant nutrition, that formula keeps infants fuller for longer or that specific formula ingredients are proven to improve child development or immunity. “The World Health Organisation has very strict limits on how infant formula can be marketed, but the United States is not following that marketing and many other countries often don’t follow it fully,” says Abrams. “That gives us problems trying to gain information so that paediatricians and the like can make good decisions. There isn’t any good, unbiased way to get good advice.”
Abrams would like to see the WHO’s guidelines followed more closely, and thinks the US and Europe could benefit from dedicated organisations that take an impartial look at the evidence. After all, if the new bioactives really are as important for infant health as many manufacturers claim, surely all formula brands should include them?
“Because these ingredients are only added at the highest end of the marketplace, those who get their formula from public assistance will not benefit,” says Abrams. “If something is important enough to be there, it’s important enough that the government should provide it. It’s an equity issue.” There can be no doubt that, as and when breastfeeding is impossible, and for whatever reason, formula milk is the next best thing. It is a good nutritional approximation for human milk and has been carefully designed to meet babies’ needs. However, when it comes to the latest hype ingredients, there is a lot we still do not know. More research needs to be done before they can be unequivocally recommended. ●
Ingredients Insight /
www.ingredients-insight.com
wk1003mike/Shutterstock
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