Baby Food: Additives and Advocacy

Public concerns with food additives developed by mid-century. The American Medical Association declined to approve the addition of vitamins and minerals to canned baby food during World War II. Debates over additives during the 1960s focused on corporate practices driven by market concerns. The consumer advocate Ralph Nader appeared before the U.S. Senate in 1969 to testify that the food industry flavored baby food with salt, sugar, starches, and monosodium glutamate not to enhance the nutrition of babies, but to please the palates of the mothers tasting the food. He proposed laws for food labeling as well as funding for food research. Later reformers argued that the addition of sugar to baby food contributed to the obesity and poor food habits of adults.