Iron content and fortification status of a sample of local and imported pre‐packaged baby foods available in Hong Kong

Abstract

Aim: To examine the iron content and fortification status of pre‐packaged baby foods in Hong Kong.

Methods: Data of 472 pre‐packaged baby foods were collected from various distribution points in Hong Kong in July‐August 2018. Item descriptors, iron content, ingredients list, country of origin, organic status and iron‐related guidelines displayed on the package were recorded. Between group differences in the median (IQR) iron content were compared by the Mann‐Whitney U test; and by Pearson's χ2 test for the proportion of pre‐packaged baby foods that were iron‐fortified or displaying iron‐related guidelines, stratified by country of origin and organic status where appropriate.

Results: Only 79 out of 472 pre‐packaged baby foods displayed iron content on their labels, and their median iron content was 6.80 (1.3‐20.0) mg/100 g. Of these, cereals [14.0 (12.0‐32.0)] and snacks and finger foods [12.6 (1.4‐21.3)] had significantly higher iron content than other pre‐packaged baby foods. Less than 20% of pre‐packaged baby foods in Hong Kong were iron‐fortified. North American pre‐packaged baby foods (49.2%) were more likely than those from other places of origin (all P < .001) to be iron‐fortified, and marginally more non‐organic pre‐packaged baby foods were iron‐fortified products than organic (23.6% vs 16.2%, P = .043). Only 17.2% of products included iron‐related guidelines/cautions on their packaging.

Conclusions: The majority of pre‐packaged baby foods available in Hong Kong lacked iron fortification, and did not display iron‐related guidelines/cautions or their iron content on the package. Given the inconsistent fortification practices by manufacturers, labelling of iron content should be mandatory to assist parents in identifying iron‐rich pre‐packaged baby foods.