Food variety during complementary feeding has been found to promote food acceptability, and improvements towards a balanced diet. This study aimed to describe and compare the food variety of homemade foods (HMFs) and commercial infant foods (CIFs) in infants and young children.
A cross-sectional study was conducted with 30 mothers from 4 Spanish cities who completed a 3-day food record of their children aged 6-18 months. CIFs data were obtained from the website of the 4 main infant food manufacturers in the Spanish market. Collected data were used to evaluate the type and frequency of ingredients used. Differences between HMFs and CIFs were analysed through independent t-tests.
A total of 121 HMFs and 143 CIFs were analysed. Similar ingredients were found in meat and fish meals, with a predominance of chicken in meat meals and hake in fish meals. Yet, HMFs meals contained a higher number of different vegetables than CIFs, with carrot as the most frequently used in HMFs and the second one in CIFs. There was a lack of oily fish and legumes in HMFs and CIFs. A significantly higher variety of different fruits were used in fruit purees of CIFs, as compared to HMFs. However, banana was the most frequently used fruit in both of them.
Our findings emphasize the need for clearer nutritional guidelines for the preparation of HMFs as well as the promotion of food variety in HMFs and CIFs to suit infants’ and young children’s nutritional and developmental needs.

FOOD VARIETY IN COMPLEMENTARY FEEDING. COMPARISON OF HOMEMADE AND COMMERCIAL INFANT FOODS IN SPAIN. AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY