Nutritional composition of processed baby foods targeted at infants from 0-12 months

In the last decade, there has been an increasing demand for ready-to-eat infant meals in Spain. However, the used food composition databases do not include processed products intended for infants under 12 months of age. Thus, we aimed at the creation of a food composition table including these products. Nutritional composition data were collected from the label of 568 products including infant formula, cereal products and complementary foods (mixed puree or snacks and desserts); additionally, breast-milk (11 preterm and term samples) nutritional composition were estimated from scientific publications available to date. Information was compiled into a table available in open access at the website http://ucc.uniovi.es/formacioncientifica/recursosinv including information about 53 dietary components of infant formula, 28 for breast milk, 30 for cereal products and 14 for complementary foods. The infant formula's composition from 0 to 6 months were found similar to the values reported for mature breast milk (10-12 weeks) but different from breast milk from 1 to 4 weeks. One serving of cereals has been found to satisfy more than the 50% of the DRI for protein and carbohydrates. This information constitutes an essential step in order to understand the diet-health relationships in the early stages of life in the Spanish population.