The ultra-processing of infant and young child diets in Australia: trends, commercial determinants and policy options
Canberra Mothercraft Society invites you to a free public lecture by Dr Phillip Baker, co-author of the Lancet’s recent ground-breaking series on ultra-processed foods (UPFs), to be launched by ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith MLA.
In his lecture, Dr Baker will show how UPFs are increasingly shaping early nutrition in Australia, displacing breastfeeding and home-prepared complementary foods and undermining healthy diets. He will focus on the challenges for families and governments in addressing the growing dominance of UPFs, given emerging evidence linking diets high in UPFs to poorer diet quality, dental caries, obesity and mental ill-health.
The expansion and intensive marketing of commercial baby foods, especially sweetened purees, squeezable pouches, toddler milks, snacks and ready-to-eat convenience products, reflect structural changes in the food system, he will argue.
He will also analyse the corporate political activity of the infant and young child food industry in Australia, and regulatory gaps that have enabled continued marketing of UPFs. To support healthier diets for infants and young children, Dr Baker will outline essential policy options for Australian governments. He envisages a different path, one where governments regulate effectively, communities mobilise and healthier diets are accessible and affordable for all.
Dr Baker is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, and Horizon Fellow, at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney. A leading Australian expert on UPFs, he was an adviser to UNICEF’s Child Nutrition Report 2025 – Feeding Profit and co-author of the 2025 report Ultra-processed foods and children.
Date: Wednesday, 4 February 2026
Venue: National Film and Sound Archive, McCoy Circuit, Acton ACT (Wheelchair access: Liversidge St)
Time: 5:30pm for 6:00pm – 7:00pm, followed by a reception
Register here for your ticket to the live lecture, or to view online via Zoom.