The UK’s Food Standards Agency has thrown its weight behind a voluntary ban on six food colours associated with hyperactivity in children, publishing a list of product ranges from manufacturers, restaurants and retailers that have withdrawn the colourings.

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Last April, the FSA proposed a ban that would phase out the use of six colourings – E102 Tartrazine, E104 Quinoline Yellow, E110 Sunset Yellow, E122 Carmoisine, E124 Ponceau 4R and E129 Allura Red – by the end of 2009.


 


The move came after researchers at the University of Southampton published the results of a study concluding that certain artificial food colours and additives exacerbate hyperactive behaviour in children.

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“We have now published a list of companies who have signed-up to the ban on our webiste. This is a major step forward in the development of a voluntary system to phase out the use of the food colourings identified by the Southampton study,” a spokesperson for the FSA told just-food.


 


The list includes come of the country’s largest retailers, including Tesco, Asda and Marks and Spencer, alongside the likes of Heinz and McDonald’s.  


Meanwhile, the EU has proposed that from mid-2010 labelling should warn that these colourings have been linked to hyperactivity in children.

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