Britain still permits controversial chemical Bisphenol-A to be used in the manufacture of a range of plastic products

Britain still permits controversial chemical Bisphenol-A to be used in the manufacture of a range of plastic products, including water bottles and the lining of food and beverage cans, like "the lining of 18 out of 20 best-selling canned food items including Heinz baked beans, Napolina tomatoes, and John West and Princes fish, as well as in tuna and sardines cans from major UK retailers Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda."

See report in the Independent and report in Food Safety News.

Should Heinz/Cow & Gate be prosecuted for not complying with food labelling legal requirement re Baby Balance biscuits, which contained trans fats?

The Times reports that "Parents are unwittingly feeding their babies and young children on items that may be worse for their health than junk food."

Sustain, a small charity that campaigns for healthier children’s food, has found that many baby foods promoted as 'healthy' are not, in fact, healthy for babies and young children. Some are, in effect, junk food.

Among the criticised products are Toddler’s Own mini cheese biscuits and Farley's Rusks.

I hope that there will be criminal prosecutions in connection with the false claims and misleading labelling, but I doubt that will happen because the food industry has many powerful friends and defenders, whereas mere consumers and their children have little influence.

Remember, babies and young children need to be protected from salt/sodium and salty foods. Child obesity is caused by sodium intake that is too high. It is not just salt that contains sodium. The raising agent in biscuits often contains sodium bicarbonate.

High sodium intake is a major contributory factor in many chronic health problems, as well as obesity.

Children and Obesity

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Heinz and Mars have been drawn into China's tainted milk crisis, following Cadbury which had to withdraw 11 brands of chocolate from the Far East.

China tainted milk scandal: Heinz and Mars drawn in
Article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"Heinz said it would stop using Chinese milk in its food processing operations in mainland China and Hong Kong after a batch of baby food was found to be contaminated with melamine.

Melamine, a chemical used in the manufacture of plastic, has been blamed for killing at least four babies and making 53,000 other infants sick after being added to milk supplies in China.

Mars meanwhile challenged findings by the Indonesian government that suggested Chinese-made chocolates including Snickers bars and M&Ms were also tainted with melamine.

The government said it was recalling the chocolates from sale, but Mars issued a statement saying both its chocolates and its milk supplies had been cleared by separate tests in China and elsewhere."

"Heinz discovered at the end of last week that one batch of "Heinz Intelligence Many Many Vegetable Cereal" on sale in Hong Kong showed traces of melamine.

All other Heinz varieties were melamine-free, it said.

The decision to recall 270 cases of baby food, and switch to non-Chinese sources of milk, followed the announcement on Monday by Cadbury that it had found traces of melamine in some Chinese-made chocolates.

It is withdrawing all 11 brands from markets supplied by its China plant, including Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the pacific islands of Nauru and Christmas Island.

The Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency said 12 products distributed in the country had tested positive for melamine, including M&Ms, Snickers and Oreo biscuits.

Mars said it would comply with a government recall but said that all its products had been cleared by government tests in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia."

"Kraft foods, which makes Oreo biscuits, said it was also questioning the methodology of the Indonesian tests."

Child health fears over high salt levels in sweet foods

Child health fears over high salt levels in sweet foods

Extract from the Guardian:

"Many sweet foods popular with children contain potentially dangerous levels of salt which are putting their health at risk, a campaign group warns today.

Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) said new research had found salt in desserts, sweet drinks and snacks of which parents were likely to be unaware.

Cash is calling on parents to check labels carefully and stop buying very salty foods for their children. The charity also urges manufacturers to lower the amount of salt they put into children's foods and to provide clear salt labelling to help parents make informed choices.

Eating too much salt is linked with high blood pressure, which increases the risk of strokes and heart disease.

Cash's research into food products on sale this month found that an Asda rolypoly fresh 114g pudding had 1.1g of salt - 55% of the recommended daily maximum for under-threes and 36% for four- to six-year-olds. A Heinz tinned treacle sponge pudding had 0.8g of salt per quarter of a tin - 40% of the average daily maximum for a child aged one to three and 27% for a child aged four to six.

Professor Graham MacGregor, Cash's chairman, said research showed children with high-salt diets had higher blood pressure, which was putting their health at risk in the longer term. "We want to see all manufacturers doing everything they can to reduce the salt they put in children's food," he said. "If they really cannot reduce the salt content in food eaten by children to reasonable levels perhaps they should consider ceasing production?""

It is high time manufacturers stopped ladling salt into food. And it's high time Professor MacGregor informed the public that obesity is caused by sodium retention and water retention and that obesity is most safely and speedily reduced by cutting down on salt intake.

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.