Use of Starch and Modified Starches in Infant Feeding: A Historical Perspective

There is a long history of the use of starch in infant feeding. Proprietary infant foods (1867-1920) contained added starch from either cereal grains or malted carbohydrates. When evaporated milk became available in the 1920s, the use of proprietary foods fell out of favor. Evaporated milk formulas were a mixture of milk, water, and modified starch or milk sugar (lactose). By the late 1920s, however, corn syrup became the most common modified starch added to evaporated milk formulas as it was widely available, inexpensive, and readily accepted. The ongoing development of the modern calorie-based infant formula, made from non-fat cow's milk, lactose, oleo and vegetable oils, largely replaced the evaporated milk formulas in the 1960s. On the other hand, after 1940, added starch and modified starch became increasingly important in the production of pureed fruits and vegetables. Not surprisingly, this included their use in the modern "industrialized" food for use in infants, including their use in a proliferation of grain based fortified infant cereals. This coincided with the increasing production largely due to the earlier introduction of complementary foods, commonly before 3 months of age by 1958. After 1969, the increasing public awareness and media scrutiny of infant foods lead to a growing criticism of the use of modified starches. Even though the National Research Council and the American Academy of Pediatrics concluded that modified starches were safe for use, continued public pressure led to their removal from most infant foods in the 1990s. This paralleled the natural food and organic food movements in the United States. Though modified starches are still used in infant dinners of mixed foods today, their use has been minimized and this issue is not currently of significant concern to the public.