Food variety in commercial and homemade complementary meals for infants in Germany. Market survey and dietary practice

• Vegetable variety in German commercial and homemade complementary meals is low.
• With 12 months, vegetable variety is greater in commercial than in homemade meals.
• Fish is rare on the baby food market and in infants’ dietary practice in Germany.
• Pure jars with green vegetables or fish could increase infants’ food variety.
• Vegetable variety and fish consumption in infancy have to be encouraged in Germany.

Introduction: Already infants do not meet the recommendations for fruit and vegetable intake although the complementary feeding period offers the possibility to expose the infant to a variety of flavours from fruits and vegetables. The objective of the present analysis was to identify differences in the vegetable variety in commercial vs. homemade complementary meals and to describe fish and meat variety in these meals in dietary practice in Germany. A further objective was to provide an overview of the food variety in commercial complementary vegetable-potato-meat/fish meals available on the German baby food market in 2012. Methods: 3-day weighed dietary records from the German DOrtmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) study were used to describe the fish and meat variety and to compare the vegetable variety in commercial and homemade meals using a vegetable variety score (VegVS). The online data base ‘Nutrichild’ served to describe the food variety on the market. Results and conclusion: The vegetable variety was low in homemade as well as in commercial meals without any differences in total variety at 6 and 9 months of age. At 12 months of age infants fed with commercial meals got a higher vegetable variety than those fed with homemade meals. In homemade and commercial meals most often carrot was used, whereas other vegetables were far below this frequency. In both meals, poultry and beef were most often used whereas fish meals were rarely offered. The market survey showed the same low vegetable variety and low fish offer as the results of the DONALD study. The data show that it is necessary to promote the advantages of a vegetable variety and fish consumption in Germany, already in early infancy.