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'Artificial colourings as harmful as leaded petrol for children' 

By Graham TibbettsPublished: 12:01AM BST 07 Apr 2008

Artificial colourings could be removed from hundreds of food products after researchers found that they may be almost as harmful to children's development as leaded petrol.

Delia Smith's recipes 'have too much salt'

The additives, found in a host of sweets and soft drinks, have been linked to behavioural problems. But a team at Southampton University, carrying out a £750,000 study for the Food Standards Agency, (FSA) suggested seven colourings, including

tartrazine and sunset yellow, could also affect children's intelligence by up to five IQ points.

The board of the FSA, the industry's governing body, will meet on Thursday to consider recommendations from its officials that manufacturers should voluntarily remove six of the E numbers from their products while further research is carried out on the seventh, sodium benzoate. They would be urged to use natural replacements.

The Southampton study was published in September but the FSA ignored calls for swift action after the Committee on Toxicology said additives had only a

Additives that are linked to hyperactive behaviour.

 

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1584172/Artificial-colourings-as-harmful-as-leaded-petrol-for-children.html

moderate effect on some children.

Claims that the colourings were virtually as damaging as lead emerged when the leader of the research, Professor Jim Stevenson, wrote to the FSA demanding immediate action.

"The position in relation to AFCs [artificial food colours] is analogous to the state of knowledge about lead and IQ that was being evaluated in the early 1980s... Needleman [a researcher] found the difference in IQ between high and low lead groups was 5.5 IQ points... This is very close to the sizes obtained in our study of food additives," wrote Professor Stevenson.

Leaded petrol was phased out from petrol stations in 2000, two decades after the warning. The letter added: "We would argue that the findings from our own study... would lead to the same conclusion... that there is 'justification for action now'."

The letter was sent to the FSA last month and published at the end of last week.

A spokesman for the Food and Drink Federation, which represents the industry, said that food additives were properly tested before they were allowed to reach the public.

"The use of food additives is strictly regulated under European law and they must be approved as safe by the appropriate European scientific committee before they can be used..."

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