RFK Jr.: Kennedy has ordered a review of baby formula. Here’s what you should know

While federal health officials pledge to repair American food supplies, they take a new look at the formula of infants.

Note: The video is from a previous report.

Health Minister Robert F. Kennedy Junior directed the Food and Drug Administration to review the nutrients and other components in the infant format, which fills the bottles of millions of American children. The effort, called “STC Speed”, is the first deep look at the components since 1998.

Kennedy said: “FDA will use all resources and salads at their disposal to ensure that children’s formula products are safe and healthy for families and children who depend on them,” Kennedy said.

About three quarters of children consume the formula during the first six months of life, with about 40 % on their only source of nutrition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Stephen Abrams, a nutritionist at the University of Texas, said that the formula was widely used in the United States nearly six decades, and feed generations of infants who have flourished.

He said that the broader scientific community calls for a reassessment of infant formula for years, and it “fully supports this idea from a comprehensive view.”

He said that current formula products in the United States are still safe and nutritious.

“But there were a lot of science and we want to consider the rules of food and drug management with the latest science from all over the world,” he said.

Here is what you need to know about the Stork Fall:

What is the form of infants and why many children consume it?

The infant formula is a manufactured product, usually made of cow’s milk or soybeans, and aims to imitate human mother’s milk for children at the age of 12 months. It may be the only source of nutrition or breastfeeding supplement.

Food and drug management regulations require that children’s format contain 30 specific nutrients, with the minimum levels of all and the maximum levels of 10 of them.

The ingredients differ, but all formulas should have a balance of calories from protein, carbohydrates and fats that reflect what is found in human milk.

Federal guidance recommends that children be breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of life and that parents continue to breastfeed for the first year or more while adding new foods to the child’s diet.

Parents use the formula when the mother cannot or choose not to breastfeed for a wide range of reasons, including medical conditions and work conflicts, to allow other family members to help feed and other situations.

Why does the government review the child’s formula now?

Kennedy announced a review of the children’s formula in March as part of the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda for US food supplies.

The agencies said that the FDA review will include increasing the test for heavy metals and other pollutants in addition to the review of food.

US health officials will discuss a two -hour round table around the infant formula on Wednesday.

What are the issues that will cover it?

FDA (FDA) requires new scientific data and information about whether required ingredients should be added to, removed or changed infant formula. The deadline for comments is September 11.

Scientists say that the review has long been late in relation to the latest data on the formation of human milk and how to digest children and absorb nutrients in breast milk and formula.

In addition, they want the FDA to consider how to compare American formulas with those made elsewhere, said Bridge Young, who studies infant nutrition at Rothschester University.

“How do our regulations differ?” She said. “Maybe it’s time to return to their regulations and consider potential international coordination.”

Young said that more international alignment may have eased the crisis of children’s formula in the United States in 2022, when pollution closed the Abbott factory, which led to a decrease for months for American parents.

What about specific components?

In recent years, some parents have sought to obtain the formula of children made in Europe with the belief that the products that are manufactured abroad are healthier options, experts said.

Abrams said that the formulas of the formula in the United States and Europe, including the requirements of nutrients and testing, are somewhat different, but they are generally similar.

“The differences between the United States and Europe should not be considered” higher “,” better “or” greater “in one to the other,” he said.

However, iron, for example, is included in higher levels in American formulas of those in Europe – and Abrams suggested that US officials think about reducing iron targets.

Other ingredients have been added to the formula in recent years. It includes Docosaxaenoic acid, or DHA, omega -3 fatty acids, human milk sugars, and complex sugars that are found, but not in cow’s milk. Although it may be useful, it is not required.

“These formulas have been added, but not to the other formulas, so we want to take a look,” Abrams explained.

Many parents have raised concerns about the formula components such as additives and seed oils, which Kennedy also targets as a risk of wider food supply.

Recent research indicates that added sugars such as the solids of corn drink and corn drink in infant formula may be linked to children’s weight gain. Young said that most experts agree that lactose, the primary type of sugar in breast milk, is preferred.

Young said that infant formulas in the United States contain seed oils. But because there is a limited number of vegetable oils that provide saturated and unsaturated fats that children need.

“They need to provide a variety of fatty acids that you see in breast milk,” she said.

What are the following steps?

Abrams said that the Food and Drug Administration formula (FDA) will take “at least a year.” It will require wide inputs of multiple government agencies, formula manufacturers and consumers.

“There are no possible shortcuts, and no one is a review, a white paper, or even the committee’s report is sufficient to do so correctly,” he said.

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