How to Read Baby Food Labels: What Every Parent Needs to Know

How to Read Baby Food Labels: What Every Parent Needs to Know

You pick up a jar of baby food, focused on choosing the healthiest option. The label looks colorful and promising—“organic,” “no added sugar,” “superfood blend.” But what does it all really mean? And how do you tell if that “healthy” label is actually hiding added sugars or sneaky additives?

We’ve all been there—standing in the baby food aisle, feeling overwhelmed by ingredient lists, nutrition facts, and marketing buzzwords. But reading baby food labels isn’t as complicated as it seems. With a little guidance, you can confidently read baby food labels  and make confident choices for your baby’s nutrition.

Let’s take a closer look—because what’s on the label matters just as much as what’s in the food.

Why Learning to Read Baby Food Labels Matters 

Babies’ nutrition lays the foundation for lifelong health, but many commercially available baby foods do not meet the highest standards. A recent study found that over 60% of baby and toddler foods on the market failed to meet recommended nutrition guidelines.

• 99% had misleading marketing
• 44% exceeded sugar guidelines
• 70% failed on protein recommendations
• 20% exceeded sodium limits

Too often, jars and pouches are packed with added sugars, artificial flavors, or preservatives—ingredients that don’t belong in your baby’s diet.

By learning to read baby food labels, you can look beyond the marketing and identify what’s really inside. It’s not about perfection, but about making the best choices you can, with knowledge on your side.

Key Steps to Reading Labels

Start With The Ingredient List

The ingredient list is your best friend! Ingredients are listed in order by weight, meaning the first ingredient is the largest portion of the food.

• Look for whole foods: Ideally, ingredients should be recognizable—vegetables, fruits, proteins, whole grains, healthy fats, and herbs and spices you would find in your kitchen.
• Beware of added sugars: Sugar hides behind many names—cane sugar, corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, honey, and even maltodextrin. Any added sugars in baby food are unnecessary and can impact your baby’s taste preferences and health.
• Spot the additives: Artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives often have long, unpronounceable names. These additives offer little nutritional benefit and may be best avoided.

Check the Nutrition Facts Panel

Next, glance at the Nutrition Facts panel. Here are a few key things to watch for:

• Total sugars: This number includes both natural sugars (from fruit or milk) and added sugars. Compare it to the ingredient list to see if sugars are added.
• Sodium content: Too much sodium isn’t good for little kidneys. Many baby foods should not have sodium or be "very low in sodium" (<35 mg sodium per serving).
• Serving size: Nutrition values are based on serving size. Make sure you’re evaluating amounts based on what your baby will actually eat.

Square Baby's "Apple Curry Chicken" Nutrition Facts & Ingredients:

Ingredient Statement:

Zucchini*, apple*, quinoa*, chicken bone broth* (filtered water, chicken bones*, carrots*), coconut cream* (coconut*, water), peas*, lemon juice*, curry powder*.   *organic

Square Baby's "Apple Curry Chicken" Nutrition -- Decoded

• All organic foods and ingredients
• No added sugar (0g) or sodium (only 15mg)
• No artificial preservatives
• No artificial colors, or flavors
• No additives
• Veggies (zucchini) as first ingredient
• Balanced nutrition with veggies, fruit, whole grains, protein, and healthy fats (2.5g healthy fats, 2g fiber, 3g protein)
• Organic lemon used as natural preservative
• A touch of spice for palate development

Label Decoder Cheat Sheet

Don’t Be Fooled by Marketing

Words like “natural,” “organic,” or “no added sugar” can feel reassuring—but they don't always mean it's the best choice for your baby. Here’s what you should know:

“Natural” 

The term “natural” might sound like a seal of approval, but in the world of baby food, it’s surprisingly vague. 

There's no single, official definition for "natural foods." However, FDA and USDA offer guidelines. It generally means:

• no artificial ingredients, colors, or flavors
• minimal processing

But it doesn't guarantee healthiness or address farming practices like pesticides or hormones, unlike the stricter "organic" label. 

“Natural” is more of a marketing term than a regulated nutrition promise.

In our Baby Food: All About Sugar blog, some products marketed as “natural” may still hide added sweeteners like fruit juice concentrate, which can impact your baby’s developing palate.

“Organic” 

The “organic” label is regulated by the USDA, which means the ingredients were grown without synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, or genetically modified organisms (GMOs). That’s a big plus, especially when it comes to minimizing your baby’s exposure to potentially harmful chemicals.

However, “organic” does NOT mean the product is free from added sugars or natural additives. An organic baby food pouch can still contain organic cane sugar, organic fruit juice concentrate, or natural flavorings that increase sugar content or alter taste.

In our Urgent Study on Baby Food Nutrition, we highlight how even organic-labeled foods can fall short on nutritional standards, particularly in added sugars and protein content.

While “organic” is a meaningful certification for farming practices, it’s just one piece of the puzzle when choosing nutritious baby food.

“No added sugar” 

Labels stating “no added sugar” can feel like a safe option for parents wanting to avoid sweeteners. This claim means the manufacturer has not added refined sugars or syrups during processing. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean the food is free from all sugars.

Many baby foods naturally contain sugars from fruits, vegetables, or even milk. Additionally, some products use fruit juices or juice concentrates, which may count as “natural sugars” or “added sugars” -- there are nuances in the labeling rules (because that's helpful!).

But from a baby’s taste perspective, natural sugars still add sweetness and can influence flavor preferences. Repeated early exposure to high levels of sugar—whether from added or “natural” sources—can shape a baby’s palate to prefer sweeter foods, which might make it harder to introduce vegetables and less sweet options later on.

Quick Tips for Smarter Label Reading

• Compare products: Look at a few brands or varieties side by side to spot differences in sugars, additives, and ingredient statements.
• Favor simple labels: Fewer ingredients usually mean less processing and fewer additives.  Look for whole food ingredients.
• Trust your instincts: If you can’t pronounce or don't recognize an ingredient, look it up. It could be an artificial preservative or it could be a vitamin. 
  • Vitamin B6 can be listed as "pyridoxine hydrochloride". 

Look for PHA’s Veggies Early & Often Icon

Square Baby, alongside the other founding Shaping Early Palates members, participated in a cross-industry effort to design the industry’s first veggie-forward criteria for baby and toddler food products. These criteria qualify products to meet the “Veggies Early & Often” Icon.

“Our hope is to encourage more companies to reformulate existing products and/or create new products to meet the VEO Icon – to encourage the next generation of adventurous eaters and facilitate increased vegetable acceptance in infants and toddlers across the country.”  -- Katie Thomson, MS, RD, Cofounder