RESUMO
Food products for infants and young children are included in the group of foodstuffs intended for special dietary uses. The classification of these products comprises the following groups: newborns infant formulas, infant formulas, processed cereal foods and other baby foods for infants and young children and gluten-free products. In the European Union countries the detailed requirements concerning their qualitative and quantitative composition, labeling, advertising and release on the market as well as the health quality of these products have been laid down in the Council Directive of 3 May 1989 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to foodstuffs intended for particular nutritional uses (89/398/EEC with later amendments) and in the detailed directives. Presently, work is being continued on preparing standards of the Codex Alimentarius FAO/WHO for infant formulas for processed cereal foods for infants and young children and for gluten-free foods. In the successive sessions of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses drafts of these standards are discussed. In the last session of the Committee in Berlin (19-23.06.2000) it was not possible to reach an agreement of views of the various delegations on the standards or their formulation. The work on them and trials at establishing international recommendations has been deferred to the next meeting.
