Food colourings
Friday, 11 Apr 2008 13:31
Research has linked food colours with hyperactivity in children
Controversy has been caused by plans to ask manufacturers to remove six artificial colours from food and drinks.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) board agreed it should advise UK ministers that there should be voluntary action by manufacturers in the UK to remove these colours by 2009.
It also announced that there should be moves to phase them out in food and drink in the European Union over a specified period.
The decision follows research published last September by researchers at Southampton University which linked the colours with hyperactivity in children.
The colours in question are: sunset yellow (E110), quinoline yellow (E104), carmoisine (E122), allura red (E129), tartrazine (E102) and ponceau 4R (E124).
FSA chair Dame Deirdre Hutton said: "It is the agency's duty to put consumers first. These additives give colour to foods but nothing else.
"It would therefore be sensible, in the light of the findings of the Southampton study, to remove them from food and drink products.
"UK industry has already taken great strides to remove these colours from food; this decision builds on the work already done and will encourage industry to continue down this path."
Until voluntary or enforced action is underway, the FSA advises parents of children showing signs of hyperactivity that cutting certain artificial colours from their diets may have some beneficial effects.
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