No Added Sugar Mandate for the Nutrition Information Panel in Australia: A Missed Policy Opportunity for Early‐Life Nutrition?

ABSTRACT

The first 1000 days of life are widely recognised as an important period for growth, development and the establishment of dietary preferences and eating behaviours that may persist across the life course. In Australia, the food regulator (Food Standards Australia New Zealand, FSANZ) recently abandoned Proposal P1058—Nutrition labelling about added sugars , which considered an amendment to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code to include ‘added sugars’ information in the Nutrition Information Panel (NIP). This decision provides an opportunity to examine implications for products manufactured and marketed for infants and toddlers. At present, the NIP requires declaration of total sugars, but this does not distinguish between intrinsic sugars naturally present in foods and sugars contributed through ingredients such as fruit juice concentrates, fruit purees, syrups, or other sweetening ingredients. This distinction is relevant in the context of the rapidly expanding market for commercial infant and toddler foods, including squeeze pouches, fruit‐based snacks, toddler yoghurts and sweetened snack‐style products that often utilise extruded fruit juice products as an ingredient to create a sweeter taste profile. In addition, parents often assume that commercial infant and toddler foods are healthy and low in sugar. While the broader evidence base for the general population did not support mandatory reform across all packaged foods, the implications for infant and toddler products remain relevant to ongoing policy discussions. The recent FSANZ decision provides an opportunity to consider whether foods marketed to infants and young children represent a distinct regulatory context in which greater labelling clarity, alongside other policy approaches, may contribute to early‐life nutrition objectives.