Chinanews, Changsha, Jan. 24 – In China, children's food has always been the major type of food produced in the industry. However, a recent survey shows that one-third of children's foods do not contain any nutrients, and another one-third of foods contain nutrients less than what they are stated on the label, Changsha Evening News reported.

 

In order to conduct the survey, the Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene under the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine had investigated 114 foods which were labeled as "food made for children."

 

Recently, a senior forum on Chinese children's food technology and industrial development was kicked off by the Soong Ching Ling Foundation and the China Food Science Society. Taking “caring for nutrition and safety of children's food” as its theme, the forum aims to promote comprehensively the technological improvement in children's food production and to uphold the healthy industrial development of children's food.

 

At the forum, Yang Jiebin, a professor from the School of Foods at the China Agricultural University, urged that China should make more rules and regulations on the production of children’s food.

 

“On the one hand, science progress improves people’s diets. On the other hand, however, many foods produced today contain some elements which are unsafe to people’s health,” said Yang.

 

He said that these elements, resulting from the overuse of chemical components, fertilizers, antiseptics, coloring agents, or sweeteners, add more risks to people’s life, especially to children. In light of this, he said that when buying foods for children, it is far from enough for parents to pay attention only to the food production date, their shelf life, and the names of the manufacturers.