The debate over food additives and hyperactivity in children has intensified in the US after a leading consumer watchdog said eight dyes should be banned.
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Yellow 5, Red 40 and six other dyes should be prohibited from use in foods, The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) said last night (3 June).
CSPI called on the US Food and Drug Administration to ban the dyes, pointing to studies in the US, Europe and Australia that claim their use worsens behaviour in children.
“The continued use of these unnecessary artificial dyes is the secret shame of the food industry and the regulators who watch over it,” said CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson. “The purpose of these chemicals is often to mask the absence of real food, to increase the appeal of a low-nutrition product to children, or both.”
A group of US researchers that analysed the studies published overseas said that, while not all children were sensitive to the dyes, there is evidence that behaviour is worsened.
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By GlobalData“The science shows that kids’ behaviour improves when these artificial colourings are removed from their diets and worsens when they’re added to their diets,” said Dr. David Schab, one of the researchers and a psychiatrist at Columbia University Medical Center.
US food manufacturers were quick to insist that US food safety officials had cleared the use of the dyes after a “thorough extensive review”.
“US and international scientific reviews have determined that there is no demonstrable link between food dyes and hyperactivity among children,” said Robert Brackett, chief science officer at the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA).
Disputes over the alleged link between food colourings and behavioural issues in children have raged in Europe in recent months.
Europe’s food safety watchdog has cast doubt on a UK study that claimed to show a possible link between certain artificial food additives and colourings and hyperactivity in children.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded that last year’s study, carried out by researchers at Southampton University, should not be used to change EU guidelines on how much of the additives should be consumed.
The Southampton study has been backed by the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) but US food manufacturers were dubious about the robustness of the findings.
“EFSA reviewed the findings, noted considerable uncertainties, absence of clinical significance of behavior changes, and lack of discrete evaluation of individual colours or additives,” the GMA’s Brackett said. “EFSA concluded that the study did not support a change in current policy on the studied food colours and additives.”
