Choosing Formula Milk for Children, Parents Need to Pay Attention to the Source to the Processing Process

Illustration of formula milk. (Freepik)

JAKARTA - Choosing formula milk for children is not just about looking at the nutritional content listed on the packaging label. Parents also need to understand the main ingredients used, where the milk source comes from, and how the ingredients are processed to become a ready-to-consume product.

Until now, ingredients such as AA and DHA, protein, vitamins, minerals, and sugar levels have often been the main concern when parents choose formula milk.

This information is indeed important, but understanding the journey of raw materials can also provide a more complete picture of the products that children will consume.

Prof. DR. dr. Rini Sekartini, Sp.A(K), pediatrician consultant for growth and development - social pediatrics, explained that parents should look at formula milk thoroughly, including the aspects of raw material sources and production processes.

"When choosing baby formula, parents generally pay attention to claims on the packaging label and the content contained in the product. This information is certainly important, but the quality of a product should also be understood from the transparency of the source of its raw materials, how the milk is processed, and how its quality is controlled at every stage," he said in a press statement Acekid to VOI, Wednesday, August 12.

Regarding the source of milk or where the milk comes from is also one of the things that parents can pay attention to when choosing milk.

The quality of raw materials is related to various stages, ranging from farm conditions, cow health, feed quality, milking process, to milk transportation.

Integrated management from farms to production facilities can also support the traceability of raw materials and the consistent application of quality standards.

After it is obtained, the milk then goes through a number of stages of processing, testing, and packaging before becoming the final product.

One of the important stages is the heating needed to maintain the microbiological safety of the product. However, the process also needs to be properly controlled because the intensity of heating can affect the characteristics of a number of components in milk.

Heating can trigger the Maillard reaction, which is a reaction between natural sugars in milk with proteins or amino acids. Therefore, managing the production process is an important part of maintaining overall product quality.

"The heating process is still needed to maintain product safety. Therefore, what needs to be considered is not only the presence or absence of the heating process, but how the process, along with other production stages, is managed and controlled consistently. Transparency regarding ingredients and production processes can help parents make choices based on more complete information," added Prof. Rini.