European revision on safety of artificial colours

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has revised its advice about the safety of the six artificial colouring foodstuffs that the 2007 Southampton University study suggests as being linked to increased hyperactivity in children.

In a scientific opinion published last week on the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of these additives, following a review of further research, EFSA has advised that the ADIs for quinoline yellow, sunset yellow and ponceau 4R should be reduced. There were no revisions to the ADIs for carmoisine, allura red and tartrazine.
This has come as welcome news for the Food Standards Agency (FSA), which had come under criticism for advising the UK food and drink industry to voluntarily remove the six colours from food and drink in the UK by the end of 2009, given that EFSA had originally found insufficient evidence to support the Southampton findings.
EFSA’s original advice failed to support the Southampton study of the six colourings and the food preservative sodium benzoate largely because, in the study, the additives had been administered in combinations which meant that any effect could not be ascribed to individual colours.
John Larsen, chairman of EFSA’s scientific panel on additives (ANS), said: “We have now reduced the ADIs for three of the six colours we assessed, but for different reasons in each case as different data was available on each individual compound.”
However, he noted: “The data that is currently available - including the Southampton study itself - did not substantiate a causal link between the individual colours and possible behavioural effects.”
The Food Commission, a campaign group, has also welcomed the revised EFSA advice.

Ann Glayzer, co-ordinator of the Food Commission’s Action on Additives​ Campaign, which has been lobbying for a ban in the UK and EU, said: “That the ADIs have been lowered for three of the six colours shows once again that concerns are justified.

“From the point of view of the consumer, however, it remains impossible to measure what quantity of any of these additives one is consuming as levels are not indicated on labels. These colours are totally unnecessary in foods. We continue to call for a mandatory ban.”
The EU has already agreed that, from July 2010, food and drink containing these colours should carry labelling to inform consumers that they may have an adverse effect on the activity of children and those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
The FSA expects that the European Commission will discuss these opinions with European Member States with a view to reducing use of these colours so that consumption does not exceed the ADI. This could mean a reduction in the levels of these colours allowed in food or restrictions on the range of foods in which they are allowed.
Most UK manufacturers have already been working to remove these colours from foods produced in this country.