The good, the bad and the colourful

E numbers are bad: artificial colourings make children hyperactive; MSG causes headaches; artificial sweeteners cause cancer – with press like this, it’s easy to see why the public think E numbers are unhealthy, but there are very few that actually have adverse effects and some are even necessary for your health

Children were devastated in 2006 – the joy of receiving a packet of Smarties soon turned to disappointment when they realised the blue Smartie had disappeared; it was the best colour after all.

And the blue Smartie wasn’t the only target for health-conscious parents worried by the hysteria caused by ‘evil’ E numbers. All brightly coloured sweets and fizzy drinks aimed at children – renowned for E numbers in the form of additives and colourings – were on the hit-list.

This led to manufacturers scrambling to replace artificial E numbers in sweets and other foodstuffs with more natural versions, like Haribo who replaced artificial flavouring with fruit juices. Luckily for Smartie lovers, Nestle – who were using the colourants E171, E124, E104, E110 E122, E133 and E1202 – were able to find natural sources for their previously artificial colourings. “We no longer use riboflavin, carminic acid, copper complexes of chlorophyllins, vegetable carbon or mixed carotenes in the classic and mini Smarties,” Christine Masterson, a consumer relations executive at Nestle told Laboratory News.

The ‘new’ Smarties make use of ‘colouring foodstuffs’ say Nestle: “These are ingredients which may impart colour when added to a food product and are typically concentrates of fruits or vegetables, but may also be cereals, spices or other foods. Importantly, they retain the essential characteristics of the food they originate from.”

Their colouring foodstuffs now include fruit from the Hibiscus sabdariffa; black carrot (Daucus carota L.); lemon; radish; red cabbage; and Safflower – a highly branched thistle-like plant. But sadly for Smartie purists, there was no natural blue.

Colourings in particular have been linked to hyperactivity in children, so it’s no surprise that parents have concerns about their child’s wellbeing. Certain E numbers and many of those previously used in Smarties  – E102, E104, E110, E122, E124 and E129 – were voluntarily phased out in the UK in 2007 after research from Southampton University showed consumption of one or more of this combination may be associated with hyperactivity1,2. However, numerous other scientific studies have failed to find any conclusive association between E numbers and hyperactivity.

And it’s not just colourings that have been associated with ill health.  Processed foods containing the flavour enhancer MSG (E621) have been blamed for head and body aches and aspartame (E951) – a sweetener and natural derivative of amino acids used in low calorie drinks and chewing gum – has been linked with cancerous tumour growth. However, extensive scientific studies have shown that there is no link between foods containing these E number and adverse health effects.

When you mention the term E number, people often think of colours and flavourings. But there are many types of E numbers – in short, they are any additive which demonstrates a useful purpose and/or help maintain the quality and characteristics of the food. They include:E100-199: ColoursE200-299: PreservativesE300-399: Antioxidants and acidity regulatorsE400-499: Thickeners, stabilisers and emulsifiersE500-599: Acidity regulators and anti-caking agentsE600-699: Flavour enhancersE700-799: AntibioticsE900-1999:Miscellaneous and additional chemicals

So it’s hardly surprising that ‘E number’ is often used as a pejorative term but in fact, an E number is simply a code given to the 319 food additives that have been assessed for use within the European Union. The European Food Safety Authority has responsibility for ensuring that E numbers are safe for human consumption – they must undergo rigorous testing and safety evaluations before they are approved for use. These assessments are also based on reviews of all available toxicological data – in both human and animal models. Once an E number has been approved, its approval is monitored, reviewed and amended in the light of new scientific data.

We use E numbers – namely antioxidants and preservatives – to extend a product’s shelf life, in the same way that meat and fish is smoked or salted as a means of preservation. E numbers from 300-399 are antioxidants and make food last longer – they stop the fat, oils and vitamins reacting with oxygen, which would make the food taste ‘off’ and rancid. Gelling agents are used as thickeners for gravy and sauces; emulsifiers help stop mixtures of oil and water from separating in transit; stabilisers are used in foods like jam to change the consistency of foods; and sweeteners are used instead of sugar in low calorie drinks and gums.

And then there are the usual culprits – colours and flavourings. Colourings are meant to replace natural colours lost in storage or processing – such as the colouring foodstuffs in Smarties – while flavourings are designed to enhance the natural flavour of a product – like fruit juice-based jelly sweets – without adding any new flavours. The Egyptians used colours and flavourings, and the Romans used saltpetre (potassium nitrate), spices and colour in their cuisine.

Often we’ll use E numbers without even realising it: baking powder or sodium bicarbonate – E500 – is used as a rising agent and gelatine or E441 is often used in desserts.

“An EU approved additive doesn’t have to be listed on a label by its E number – packs can give their real name instead. This is not helpful,” wrote Stefan Gates in Stefan Gates on E Numbers. And he’s right.

Take for example vitamin C – this is added to things like fruit juices, butter and children’s iced treats – but vitamin C is also an E number:  E300 and is classed as an antioxidant. Similarly, vitamin E is given the E numbers 306-309 and is added to foods containing fats and oils like mayonnaise and meat pies, and riboflavin – vitamin B2 or E101 – is used to colour foods yellow.

So it’s all rather confusing – foods which you think might be ‘additive-free’ and contain no E numbers are probably still stuffed with them, even if you don’t know it. This makes it practically impossible to have an E number and additive free diet.

Gates – who describes himself as a ‘food adventurer’ – actually tried to overdose on E numbers, and found it quite hard. The maximum levels allowed in food – the Advisable Daily Intake (ADI) – must have no demonstrable toxic effect, and Gates notes the actual levels allowed were 100 times lower than the safe level demonstrated in experiments.

“Basically they work out the amount of any additive that an animal can eat without having any bad effects, then divide it by 10 (in case a human is 10 times more sensitive than an animal) and then this figure is divided by 10 again to account for the range of sensitivities in humans,” he said.

Gates spent 24 hours gorging on what he said was ‘crap processed food’ – frozen pizzas, chicken nuggets and high energy drinks – but other than leaving him with a sore mouth and feeling bloated, he couldn’t overdose. A visit to a doctor two weeks later showed Gates had eaten 8,500 calories with 50 different E numbers – unfortunately 32 were so inert they didn’t have ADIs, and the doctor was more concerned by his intake of fat, sugar and salt than E numbers.

E numbers don’t deserve to be tarred with the ‘evil’ brush – many of them demonstrate a useful function in preserving our food and keeping our mayonnaise mixed, and some like vitamins are positively necessary for our well-being. Around 20 E numbers are actually produced in your body, irrespective of whether you’ve eaten them in your food, and are also found in blood, sweat, urine and semen.  And incidentally, children rejoiced when opening their packs of Smarties in 2008. After two years away, the blue Smartie was reinstated after it was discovered that the colour could be extracted from Cyanobacterium spirulina – a blue-green algae or seaweed.

References:

1. Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the community: a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial, The Lancet, Vol. 370 No. 9598 pp 1560-1567 Online http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2807%2961306-3/abstract

2. Major study indicates a link between hyperactivity in children and certain food additives http://www.soton.ac.uk/mediacentre/news/2007/sep/07_99.shtml