Author(s): Smita Srivastava and Neelam Chaturvedi

Abstract:
Every child deserves a healthy start to life, good nutrition and healthy diets in the first two years of life set the foundation for optimal growth, development and well-being of child throughout the life. To ensure healthy growth and development of infants from about 6 to 23 months of age need to complement breast milk with solid foods that are more nutrient-dense and prepared more frequently during the day than the family diet. As per census 2011 India is the second most populous country in the world where 13.12 percent of her population lies in the tender age bracket i.e 0-6 years. However, due to the increasing number of working women and the increasing parental concerns about nutrition have lead to introduction of commercial baby food. These professionally made food designed to meet the nutrition requirements of babies also address the problems of scarcity of time for preparing baby food at home. These packed and bottled baby food is also considered as a supplement to mother’s feeding. The baby food market in India is witnessing rapid growth and is growing by 10-12% a year. However, these commercial baby food contains many toxic hazardous chemicals such as semi-carbazide (SEM), BPA, 2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl) propane etc. These chemicals can accumulate in certain organs, such as the liver, heart and lymph nodes and may cause them to become damaged or diseased.