Child formula survey in Thailand in 2004 – 2006.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to survey amount of sugar in the ingredient of child formula in 2004 - 2006, The child formula were classified into 3 subgroups which were infant formula, Follow - up formula and Powdered whole milk. The result of this study was, for infant formula, all brands had no sugar in their ingredients but they still had lactose, which the lactose amount varied among each brands. For the Follow-up formula, ratio of regular formula and sweetened formula raised from 2.3. in

n 2005 and then in 2006 all of the Follow-up formula turned to be regular formula after the launch of the act 286 of Ministry of Public Health. For the Powdered whole milk, ratio of regular formula and sweetened formula increased just a little from 1.7 in 2004, to 2.2 in 2005, the Powdered whole milk was still the group that could be sugar added because there was still no law to control sugar in this group. The survey in 2006 found that there were warning labels “no sugar” on packages, according to the act 286 of Ministry of Public Health. However, this act didn't control sugar adding in the Follow-up formula, so, children still had risk of receiving too much sugar from their milk. From this study, it's recommended that it's necessary to campaign drinking no sugar milk to parents and try to systematically control sugar in children's milk continuously.