Based on UK research, the Food Standards Agency is to recommend to Ministers the phasing out of six food and drink colourings in the EU for their role in ADHD.
Sweets coloured with Allura Red AC could be a thing of the past
The possible role of food colours in exacerbating the level of hyperactivity in children has been mooted for over 30 years, but in 2007 a research team from Southampton University showed that the six colours - sunset yellow (E110), quinoline yellow (E104), carmoisine (E122), allura red (E129), tartrazine (E102) and ponceau 4R (E124) - did indeed have an effect on behaviour. “The change of regulation recommended by the FSA to remove these six colours will be welcomed by parents, especially those wanting to avoid exposing their children to artificial colours and who were trying to achieve this by monitoring the constituents of the food bought for the family,” said study member Professor Jim Stevenson. There has been accumulating evidence for such an effect on children with more extreme levels of hyperactivity or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The Southampton team has now completed two studies showing an effect in children from the general population - the first of these was conducted with colleagues from the David Hide Asthma and Allergy Research Centre on the Isle of Wight. The more recent study was published in September 2007 in the Lancet. The FSA Council says that the basis for its recommendation is that “there is an accumulating body of evidence that there is an association between the consumption of certain food colours and children’s behaviour; and that all food additives must be safe for use in order to be approved. The available evidence now leaves uncertainty as to whether that safety can be confidently asserted.” However Professor Stevenson is quick to point out that removal of food colourings alone is not an overall solution to hyperactive behaviour. “It must be emphasised that the eventual removal of these colours from food will not by itself eliminate hyperactivity and certainly not for all children. Artificial colours are just one of a wide range of social and biological influences on hyperactivity. However it is the view of the Southampton team that removing the colours from food will improve the health of children.”
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