A public safety campaign from the publishers of The Food Magazine
Action On Additives

Latest news: Success for Action on Additives campaign: artificial food colourings to be removed from food and drink products. The Action on Additives campaign welcomes the Food Standards Agency’s decision to advise ministers to call for an EU ban on six artificial food colourings. However, the additives are not banned yet. See Media section.

In September 2007, scientific research confirmed that mixtures of artificial food colourings and a commonly used food preservative can increase hyperactive behaviour in susceptible children.

©2007 ActionOnAdditives.com These additives have not yet been banned. Companies continue to use them in children's food and children's medicines. The Food Standards Agency is advising ministers to seek voluntary removal of the six artificial food colourings by 2009, but for now the food additives continue to be used.

The food industry says that the additives are used in just a 'handful' of products, but this website already lists over 1,000 products found in the UK. Most of these are targeted at children.

If you know of a product which contains the suspect food additives, please add it to this website using the form below. You can also search the website using the search facility on the right.

Add product Add a food, drink or medicine to the website

If you would like to add a product to this website, please type in the name of the product and click on the 'add product' button.

 

These are the additives we are looking for

Tartrazine - E102 - artifical, yellow food colouring
Quinoline yellow - E104 - artifical, yellow food colouring
Sunset yellow - E110 - artifical, orange / yellow food colouring
Carmoisine - E122 - artifical, red food colouring
Ponceau 4R - E124 - artifical, red food colouring
Allura red - E129 - artifical red food colouring
Sodium benzoate - E211 - artifical preservative

Spotting the additives is not easy – they are listed in ingredients lists, but the print is often very small and they can be listed by either their name or their E number. Some foods are sold without any packaging, and the additives may also be used in restaurant and take-away food. The additives also crop up in medicines for both children and adults.

Some manufacturers and retailers have already removed these food additives, but other companies think it is okay to keep selling products that contain them. This website aims to list all those products which still contain the questionable additives. 

Jar of colourful sweets

These sweets may look bright and cheerful, but the vivid colours are often produced using artificial colourings, including those linked to hyperactivity in children.

Few children or adults will stop to examine the tiny ingredients information given on a packet of sweets, or will be aware that some artificial colourings are linked to hyperactivity, can cause allergic reactions and (in some cases) are banned in the USA because they are considered unsafe.

The Action on Additives campaign has found suspect artificial colourings in an enormous range of products, not just in sweets, showing that care is needed if these unnecessary and potentially harmful food additives are to be avoided.

The Food MagazineThe Action on Additives website is coordinated by The Food Commission, a not-for-profit company which campaigns for healthier, safer food in the UK. Visit the website at http://www.foodcomm.org.uk/ for lots more information on food and health.

The Food Magazine is a quarterly magazine produced by The Food Commission. The magazine is essential reading for anyone who cares about what they, or their children, eat.

The Action on additives project is coordinated by The Food Commission (UK) Ltd, a public interest watchdog which campaigns for healthier, safer food in the UK    

Sign up for more information

If you want to be kept informed about food additives, please enter your email address below and press 'add email'. Your email address will not be passed to any third parties or marketing agencies and will only be used by the Action on Additives campaign.

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Seven suspect additives card

If you would like a handy Action on Additives plastic card, listing the seven suspect additives, please send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to the Action on Additives campaign, 94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF. We can supply up to three free cards to any one address, so you can share the cards with your friends.

If you would like to purchase a larger number of the cards, please email Anna at anna@actiononadditives.com for details of cost.

You can also print a sheet of ten cards by clicking on the link below.
Print more cards

Do you work in the hospitality sector?

The Action on Additives campaign welcomes information from people working in restaurants, hotels or contract catering. If you can tell us more about the use of any of these additives in the hospitality sector, where such additives usually go unlabelled, please click here.

 
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©2008 ActionOnAdditives.com