It has emerged that Annabel Karmel, self-styled child nutrition guru, has been criticised for adding sugar and salt to her toddler ready meals.
Annabel Karmel has sold millions of books advising parents how to wean children on to healthy food yet her Eat Fussy ready meals are full of sugar and salt. This means that the little ones eating the dishes are eating ingredients which can contribute to poor health later in their lives.
Her Beef Lasagne contains 5.4g of sugar per 100g of weight which is double the sugar found in a similar product for adults. It also contains 1g of salt per pack, half of the entire daily recommended maximum for a child aged one to three. The Eat Fussy beef cottage pie has even more salt at 1.1g in a pack. The lasagne and cottage pie contain added sea salt despite a Government recommendation that parents cooking at home should not add salt to meals for toddlers.
Questions about the ingredients emerged in a BBC Panorama programme highlighting the difficulties for parents in ensuring under-fives are eating healthily.
A spokesman for AK said the criticism of the Eat Fussy lasagne was unfair. 'As the meals are aimed at one- to four-year-olds, it is important to remember that we state on pack that the meals are a generous portion for young toddlers and most would not eat the whole contents........ A one-year-old would manage about half a portion but even if a toddler of one or two were to eat the entire meal this would still be OK as part of a balanced diet. There is little point in making a meal that children will not eat. If healthy alternatives are bland and children refuse to eat them, frustrated parents may well turn to chicken nuggets, pizzas and pot noodles.'
Annabel Karmel was made an MBE in 2006 and has written 17 books on food and child nutrition, while her business has expanded to include baby products and, more recently, ready meals.
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