FSA recommends ban on Southampton study colours

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) will urge the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to move to ban food colourings highlighted in a Southampton University study as potentially contributing to hyperactivity in children.

In a board meeting, the FSA reviewed five options for possible action based on the study, ranging from recommending no action to the hardline position of recommending an outright ban.

The vast majority of opinion came down in favour of recommending that EFSA should press the European Commission (EC) to effect a total ban of the use of the colours in food and drink by 2009. The FSA further recommended that the UK food and drink industry should effect a voluntary ban on the colours in the meantime. However, it said sodium benzoate, also tested in the study, would not be included in its recommendation, partly because of its preservative benefits in food and partly because more debate was needed on its effects.Summing up the board’s feelings, chair Deirdre Hutton said: “We would like to see the use of these colours in food and drink phased out over a period that requires mandatory action by the EC and would recommend voluntary action in the UK by 2009.”

The board agreed to write to EFSA expressing that view, but strongly stressing the need for industry to take voluntary action before that point.

Board members decided that although the Southampton study, led by Professor Jim Stevenson, was limited, its findings were sufficient to indicate that there may be risks to hyperactive children. Since it would be difficult to control the types of food children consumed and who bought it, it was decided to recommend a blanket ban for all food categories.

The decision appeared to cut across EFSA’s evalution of the study​, published in March, which had concluded that it provided insufficient evidence to support a ban on the colours it covered. EFSA argued that the implications of the study were uncertain and that effects were inconsistent across the two age groups studied. It also said it was difficult to isolate the effects of the individual additives covered by the study, because only combinations were tested.

The study examined the effect of combinations of sunset yellow (E110), quinoline yellow (E104), carmoisine (E122), allura red (E129), ponceau 4R (E124), tartrazine (E102) and the preservative sodium benzoate on children aged three and eight to nine.

Responding to the decision, Julian Hunt, director of communications at the Food and Drink Federation, said: “UK food and drink manufacturers are already taking these colours out of products on supermarket shelves, so we are surprised the FSA board feels it is an appropriate use of their powers to call for a voluntary ban.”

The British Soft Drinks Association said: “Soft drinks manufacturers have for some time been actively responding to the public’s increasing desire for more ‘natural’ ingredients and a wide variety of beverages are now available to meet this need and innovation in this area is ongoing.

“A very small minority of soft drinks manufactured in the UK include the colours highlighted in the Southampton University study. Reformulation is continuing and we are committed to finding alternatives to these colours where possible.

“We look forward to working with the FSA and other industry bodies to ensure that the public can continue to choose from a wide range of products and enjoy them with confidence.”