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Background: A healthy diet in young children is crucial for optimal growth and development. However, many toddlers (1-3 y) consume suboptimal diets, and as a result, are at a high risk of experiencing negative health outcomes. Moreover, minimal progress has been made to improve the healthiness of retail food environments for toddlers to date despite the potential and advocacy for the issue. Objectives: To gain insight into stakeholder perceptions and opinions on the healthiness of Australian retail food environments for toddlers, as well as perspectives on the options and barriers to improve their healthiness. Methods: Qualitative, online study utilizing semi-structured individual interviews with 27 key stakeholders from food industry, academia, nongovernment organizations, public health, and government in Australia. Results: Most stakeholders agreed that retail food environments for toddlers were not health promoting. Stakeholders identified that a multifaceted approach including nutrition education and strong government mandated regulation were essential to improve the healthiness of retail food environments for toddlers. Interviews also highlighted the main perceived barriers to progress, and reasons for policy inaction in this area are the food industry and government support. Many stakeholders were concerned that child health is being undermined due to the government favoring business needs over public health. Conclusions: Stakeholders in this study overwhelmingly agreed that there is more that can and should be done to create health promoting retail food environments for toddlers in Australia. Stakeholders identified a range of strategies that can be used to improve the healthiness of toddler food environments, but advocacy efforts are being undermined due to government inaction. Stakeholders believed that strong governance is required to create equitable, sustainable healthy retail food environments for young children. Improving the healthiness of retail food environments for young children will not only reduce diet related disease across the lifespan but will help to address financial and societal costs of a poor diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To analyse nutritional and packaging characteristics of toddler-specific foods and milks in the Australian retail food environment to identify how such products fit within the Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADG) and the NOVA classification.Design: Cross-sectional retail audit of toddler foods and milks. On-pack product attributes were recorded. Products were categorised as (1) food or milk; (2) snack food or meal and (3) snacks sub-categorised depending on main ingredients. Products were classified as a discretionary or core food as per the ADG and level of processing according to NOVA classification.Setting: Supermarkets and pharmacies in Australia.Results: A total of 154 foods and thirty-two milks were identified. Eighty percentage of foods were snacks, and 60 % of foods were classified as core foods, while 85 % were ultraprocessed (UP). Per 100 g, discretionary foods provided significantly more energy, protein, total and saturated fat, carbohydrate, total sugar and Na (P < 0·001) than core foods. Total sugars were significantly higher (P < 0·001) and Na significantly lower (P < 0·001) in minimally processed foods than in UP foods. All toddler milks (n 32) were found to have higher energy, carbohydrate and total sugar levels than full-fat cow's milk per 100 ml. Claims and messages were present on 99 % of foods and all milks.Conclusions: The majority of toddler foods available in Australia are UP snack foods and do not align with the ADG. Toddler milks, despite being UP, do align with the ADG. A strengthened regulatory approach may address this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]