Panorama expose healthy toddler meals

Healthy meals for toddlers have been investigated by Panorama and the results are to be aired on the BBC One programme tonight.

What’s In Our Kids’ Food? Finds twice as much sugar in parent favourite Annabel Karmel ready meals for toddlers than in an ordinary supermarket lasagne.

Popular food guru Annabel Karmel, has made her name by encouraging parents to cook healthy, home-made food for their children.

Annabel Karmel says: “Children prefer sweeter foods to adults so that’s probably why it’s sweeter than an adult’s lasagne but we have actually made a decision to take all of the sugar out of our meals because we have found a way to take the acidity out of the tomatoes by adding fruit juice, so that is something we’ve already been working on.”

Reporter for Panorama, Shelley Jofre discovered that Annabel’s ready meals also contain more than a third of the daily recommended salt intake for children aged one to three years.

Annabel Karmel says: “Have you ever had a fussy child who won’t eat? I deal with mums all the time who have children who won’t, and in order to get a child to eat, it needs to taste good. Now this is not excessive levels of salt. Twenty-nine per cent of young children under the age of three have sweets and chocolates regularly. Now that isn’t a good-quality food.”

Also exploring the high cost of pre-prepared food for toddlers, Panorama found that Tesco’s Finest lasagne costs £6.25 per kilo with Annabel’s toddler version coming in at £10.41 per kilo.