| Abstract: | The fatty acid composition in the lipid phase of 64 commercially available baby food products, of two different batches each, was analyzed. They comprised vegetable products for babies of five, eight, and twelve months and fruit and cereal products of three different brands. The comparison of the composition of the saturated (C18:0, C16:0, C14:0, C12:0, C10:0), the unsaturated monoenoic (C18:1n9 and C16:1n7) and the polyenoic (C18:2n6 and C18:3n3) fatty acids was determined by gas chromatography. All analyzed baby food products provided well‐balanced amounts of saturated fatty acids on the one hand (saturated fatty acids (SFA) 31—37% of total fatty acids) and unsaturated fatty acids on the other hand (monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) 23—26% and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) 38—46% of total fatty acids, respectively). The P/S‐ratio in vegetable products of five months reached a value of 1.5, in all other analyzed products it was around 1. The n‐6:n‐3‐ratio was 10:1 in fruit and cereal products, followed by 11.6:1 in vegetable products of eight and twelve months and 13.5:1 in the group of vegetable products of five months. Since there is a lack of arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid in baby food products, it might be of advantage to consider whether such products should be supplemented by these long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. |
