Nowadays, parents pay more and more attention to the safety of children's diet. Some enterprises have developed the so-called foods specially designed for children, such as children's milk, children's noodles and children's soy sauce. Does the term "children's food" exist? What is the safety level of "children's food"?

"Children's food" is just a general term

At present, the WHO and countries do not have a clear and unified age stipulation for children. In China, only the concept of "milk powder for children" in the National Food Safety Standard Standard for the Use of Food Nutritional Fortification Substances in Foods (GB 14880), that is, "formulated milk consumed by people who have reached the age of 36 months but less than 15 years old".

Chinese national food safety standards do not put forward food safety requirements different from those of adults for foods for people over 3 years old but less than 15 years old. That is to say, most foods named after "children" in the market belong to the category of general foods, and their safety and nutrition are no different from general foods. Foods marked with "children" word, such as children's soy sauce, children's meat floss, children's dumplings and children's snacks, are just certain marketing method.

However, there are a few special cases:

Although the above three standards refer to "children" word or related age groups, they are not clearly classified as "children's food", that is, there is no national food safety standard corresponding to the special name "children's food" that reflects the true nature of food.

Likewise, there is no concept or standard for children's health food. All health foods in China should meet the National Food Safety Standard Health Food (GB 16740) and the quality requirements in health food registration or filing approval documents. It is stipulated that nutrient supplements for age-appropriate groups should be marked with specific groups (such as age groups), which should be consistent with suitable people, and cannot be named after "children's health food". In addition, "children's health products", like "health products", have no relevant regulations, standards and normative basis in China.

The standards for foods named after "children" need to be improved

At present, Chinese statutory law allows foods named after "infants and young children" (such as infant and young children formula food, infant and young children formula food for special medical purpose) as one of special foods, and strict management must be implemented. The production must be organized according to the technical requirements, such as the product formula and production process registered or filed in accordance with specific national food safety standards and regulations. Complementary foods for infants and young children do not need to register. The above foods must be produced in accordance with the designated national food safety standards. The food labels and identification of infants and young children foods that have been registered and approved are part of the registration content, and have strict and standardized texts. Enterprises are not allowed to increase or decrease the claimed content without authorization.

However, because the current mandatory standards for the labels and identification of general foods do not explicitly prohibit naming foods with "children" word, the labels and identifications of some general foods in the market are often titled with "children" or imply that they have functions and effects for children. Most of them are on the edge of the constraints of current regulations and standards. Some made misleading to the relevant consumer groups because of improper claims.

In order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and stop and correct these behaviors, in recent years, the National Food Safety Standards Review Committee and the State Administration for Market Regulation have successively drafted relevant documents and issued drafts for comments. It is clearly stipulated that "without the provisions of laws, regulations, rules and food safety standards, no words or patterns shall be used on food identification to express, imply or emphasize that the product is suitable for specific groups such as infants and young children, children, the elderly and pregnant women."

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Source: China Quality News

Note: This article is compiled by Antion, please indicate our source if reprint it.