Early Nutrition and Long-Term Health

Early Nutrition and Long-Term Health

Why nutrition  in early life matters?

Task Force Information

Objectives and list of Task Force members

Contact Information

Contact details in case you have specific questions

Activity Overview

Overview of ongoing and upcoming activities

Expert Groups

Objectives, output and list of experts involved in each activity

Publications

List of publications of this
Task Force

Multimedia

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Completed Expert Groups

Details including experts involved of
each activity

Task Force Information

Objectives

The Task Force aims at providing scientific evidence to support guidelines for maternal and infant nutrition to ensure life-time optimal health. It also identifies risk factors for obesity and other health consequences at the earliest stages of life.

Task Force Members

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Contact Information

For more detailed information, please contact Ching-Yu Chang at cchang@ilsieurope.be

Activity Overview

Ongoing

- Early biomarkers for prediction of metabolic health

The Expert Group on early biomarkers for prediction of metabolic health aims to review biomarkers in early life that could be used to predict development of childhood obesity and metabolic health. This prediction may drive knowledge of personalised nutrition.

Start date: May 2021 | End date: Q4 2025

- Lipid quality in early life nutrition

The Expert Group on Lipid quality in early life nutrition aims to generate an overview of the dietary lipid quality in the first year of life and its relations with health benefits for consumers.

Start date: Q3 2022 | End date: Q4 2025

- Plant-based proteins for infants

The Expert Group on Plant-based proteins for infants aims to evaluate the nutritional quality of plant protein-based infant formula for term-born infants (< 1 years old). The group is organising a physical workshop with three sessions: Source, Processing, and Safety; Nutrition Quality and Health Impact; and Sustainability. A proceeding will be published.

Start: Q4 2023 | End: Q4 2025

Upcoming Activities

- Postbiotics for early life nutrition

The Expert Group aims to explore the emerging role of postbiotics in infant nutrition through a focused, workshop-style debate involving experts in microbiota, pediatrics, and nutritional science. This initiative will identify key challenges, assess knowledge gaps, and develop recommendations to guide future research and applications. The outcomes will be published to support evidence-based guidance in infant and early childhood health. This is a joint activity with the Probiotics Task Force.

Start: Q4 2025 | End: Q2 2027

In the Pipeline

  • Evidence review on gut-brain-axis, early microbiome development and mental health later in life.
  • Evidence review on vegan diet for children.
  • Countries nutritional requirements for weaning food (1-3 years) and young child formula. 

Expert Groups

Early Biomarkers for Prediction of Metabolic Health

Background and Objectives

The aim of the activity is to review biomarkers in early life that could be used to predict development of childhood obesity and metabolic health. The activity will focus on invasive and non-invasive, perinatal and postnatal biomarkers. This activity aims to:

- Summarise the current evidence for early life (perinatal and postnatal) biomarkers that are able to predict childhood obesity and related metabolic health.

- Emphasise relevance of combining conventional predictive markers (e.g. early weight gain) with novel applications of metabolomics, epigenetics and microbiota profiling. It will help to more accurately and effectively identify infants at risk to develop obesity.

- Emphasise importance of validity and reliability of identified biomarkers for application of such biomarkers in (daily) practice.

Output

The highlighted (recent) findings in the development of biomarkers for early life prediction of metabolic health could be used to guide risk prediction and stratification. This prediction may drive development and knowledge of personalised (infant) nutrition to reduce the risk of childhood obesity. Researchers should become aware of the urgency to develop and validate new predictive biomarkers that are both easily detectable and responsive to nutritional interventions.

Expert Group Members

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Lipid Quality in Early Life Nutrition

Background and Objectives

The activity aims to generate an overview of the fatty acid (FA) quality composition consumption (by means of from all dietary sources; human milk, infant milk formula and complementary feeding) in the first year of life and to what extent this brings or relates to its relation to health benefits for infants consumers. A particular focus is given on exploring appropriate intake levels of Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA) and Monounsaturated Fatty Acids (MUFA).

Output

The results will be compiled in a review and published in a peer-reviewed journal. The publication will summarise expert insights and hopefully propose a consensus on the FA profile of the first year of life diet. It will highlight knowledge gaps and outline plans for future research and possibly a basis for new EFSA recommendations.

Expert Group Members

 

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Plant-based protein for infant

Background and Objectives

The adoption of vegan diets and the consequent demand for plant-based food and plant-based beverages has increased globally, including those suitable for infants. Proteins from plant-based sources usually have lower protein quality and poor technological characteristics (low solubility and poor heat stability) compared to animal-based proteins. Together with the specific infant nutritional requirements, multiple challenges for the application of plant-based proteins are foreseen.

This activity will identify challenges and considerations about the nutritional quality of plant protein-based infant formula for infants below 1 year by organizing a workshop in Q4 2024.

Output

Proceedings of debate/workshop including all challenges, all considerations, gap analysis and guideline for suitability of plant protein-based infant formula.

Expert Group Members

WP DataTables

Postbiotics for Early Life Nutrition

Background and Objectives

The amount of scientific literature on postbiotics, as well as the term ‘postbiotics’ on commercial products is rapidly rising. This activity aims to advance and discuss specific considerations for the application and development of postbiotics in early life nutrition through a workshop-style debate, resulting in a publication addressing challenges, gap analysis, and recommendations for future research.

Output

The approach for the expert group will be to review the latest state of the art and identify gaps, challenges and potential directions. This should create the basis for a workshop-kind of debate. By leveraging the collective expertise of the commission, the goal is to advance the understanding and application of postbiotics in early life nutrition, ultimately contributing to the development of safer and more effective nutritional products for infants and toddlers. Outcome of this activity is a publication of the proceedings of debate/workshop including existing challenges / gap analysis and guideline for future (clinical) research. 

Expert Group Members

WP DataTables

Publications

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White Papers/Reports

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Multimedia

One-Pager

Completed Expert Groups

Overview of completed activities since 2021