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How do I read the ingredient list on baby puree?

Five steps: ingredient order, sugar and honey, additives by name or E-number, highlighted allergens and salt. With references to the NHS and the European Commission.

Author: Lulyo

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Short answer

Read the ingredient list from the top: the NHS describes ingredients as listed in descending order of weight, so the largest share comes first. Then look for sugar, honey and syrups, additives (listed by name or E-number) and allergens highlighted by font or colour. Check salt separately.

Details

Five steps

  1. Order. The NHS describes ingredients as listed in descending order of weight.1 So the start of the list is what the product contains most of, by weight.
  2. Sugar and honey. Look for sugar, syrups, juice concentrates and honey. The NHS says your baby does not need sugar or sweeteners and that honey should not be given before age 1.2 More: How much sugar can a child have and Can babies under 1 year have honey?.
  3. Additives. In the EU every additive has an E-number and a label names it either by that number or by its name (EFSA).3 What that means: What E-numbers mean. Look up a specific additive in the reference.
  4. Allergens. The European Commission explains that allergens are emphasised in the list of ingredients by font, style or background colour; the NHS says bold.14
  5. Salt. The NHS says to always check food labels when you are limiting salty foods for your child.5

What a label does not tell you

An ingredient list does not show the percentage of each ingredient and does not rate the product. We do not assess "may contain traces" warnings: an allergen missing from a list does not mean it is absent from the product.

Help from this site

This is how a list is broken down (an example, not a real product):

Ingredients · example list

apple puree, rice flour, sugar1 (reason), whole milk powder, salt2 (reason).

With reservations

  1. Lowers the score

    Sugar or a sugar syrup is listed in the ingredients. WHO guidance says sugars should not be added to complementary foods and that children aged 6-23 months should not be given foods high in sugar (before 6 months WHO advises breast milk only); NHS advice (UK) is also to avoid sugar for young children. By our methodological rating this lowers the score for this age; we count a sugar in the ingredient list as a signal, not as a measurement of its share.

  2. Lowers the score

    Salt is listed in the ingredients. WHO guidance says salt should not be added to complementary foods and that children aged 6-23 months should not be given foods high in salt (before 6 months WHO advises breast milk only); NHS advice (UK) is that babies should not eat much salt. By our methodological rating this lowers the score for this age.

An example list, not a real product, rated for 6 to 12 months by the same engine as the check tool.

The date on a source is when we last opened it for the rating rule; the article date is when the article text was checked.

A methodological rating, not medical advice.

Paste the ingredient list into the ingredient list check: it runs in your browser, the text is not sent to a server, and every reason in a rating links to a source. How the rating works is in the methodology.

Limits of this article

We do not rate specific products or brands; this summarises third-party sources and is not medical advice.

More questions

What does the order of ingredients mean?

The NHS says: "Ingredients must be listed in descending order of weight". The ingredient with the largest weight comes first. The NHS describes this for the UK, so compare with the wording on your own pack.

How do I spot allergens?

The European Commission says the regulation requires clearer presentation of allergens in the list of ingredients, by emphasis in font, style or background colour. The NHS says they appear in bold.

What do I do with E-numbers?

In the EU every additive has an E-number and a label names it either by that number or by its name (EFSA). A separate article explains what that means, and our reference lets you look up a specific additive.

Do I need to look at salt?

The NHS says to always check food labels when limiting salty foods for your child, and that babies should not eat much salt. The NHS page gives no numeric limit, so we give none either.

Sources

  1. How to read food labels (opens in a new tab)NHS (UK)Back to the text
  2. Foods to avoid giving babies and young children (opens in a new tab)NHS (UK)Back to the text
  3. Food additives (opens in a new tab)European Food Safety AuthorityBack to the text
  4. Food information to consumers: legislation (opens in a new tab)European CommissionBack to the text
  5. What to feed young children (opens in a new tab)NHS (UK)Back to the text

This summarises third-party sources and is not medical advice. We do not rate specific products or brands.

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