Aussie kids at risk from artificial colours

Kids consuming additives banned overseas

Posted: 04 March 2009

From the Food Intolerance Network newsletter, Jan-March 2009

The two artificial colours most consumed by Australian kids are both banned in the United States. According to the Colour Survey released on 11th December 2008 by food regulator FSANZ, the artificial colours most consumed by children under 12 in Australia are Amaranth (colour 123) and Brown HT (colour 155). Amaranth was banned in the US in 1976 as a suspected carcinogen and Brown HT is also banned in the United States as well as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden. In third place was Sunset Yellow (110), one of the so-called Southampton Six artificial colours recently banned in the UK and subject of a warning label in the EU.

These colours are synthetic coal tar dyes and azo dyes that have been linked to behavioural and learning problems in children. The highest concentrations of artificial colours were found in savoury snack foods, ice cream/ice confectionery blocks/sticks, confectionery and cakes/muffins/pies. The highest dose of any food colour was a whopping 7000 mg/kg of Brown HT in an instant chocolate pudding mix, an amount over 24 times the Australian maximum permitted level of 290 mg/kg and nearly 46 times the international maximum permitted level of 150 mg/kg.

Find out more here.