Australia’s food regulator – Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) – has approved more than 300 food additives for use. But some advocacy groups and many consumers continue to hold concerns about whether all of the additives declared safe are in fact safe to consume. Food Investigators takes an in-depth look at food colours.

Why Are Food Colours Used?

Food colours are often used to add or restore colour to foods to make them look how we think they should appear.

For example, just because your strawberry milkshake is pink does not mean its colour and flavour come from strawberries alone. The very fact that it is a deep shade of pink could be a giveaway that your strawberry milkshake contains artificial colours and flavours.

Strawberries alone are unlikely to add the amount of colour we have come to expect from a strawberry milkshake.

Food Colours and Health Concerns

A 2007 study by Britain’s University of Southampton – published in The Lancet – linked six artificial food colours to hyperactivity and other disorders in children.

The study of 300 children concluded a mixture of the colours and the preservative sodium benzoate could affect children’s behaviour.

The colours included in the study were:

1.    Tartrazine (102)
2.    Quinoline yellow (104)
3.    Sunset yellow FCF (110)
4.    Carmoisine (122)
5.    Ponceau 4R (124)
6.    Allura red AC (129)

The study prompted a rethink on food colours by the UK food regulator – the UK Food Standards Agency. Food manufacturers are now required to label food containing any of the six colours with a warning stating that the item “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.” The colours themselves are also subject to a voluntary phase-out in the European Union.

But Australia’s food regulator (FSANZ) conducted its own study on food colours in 2008 and concluded that children here consume low levels of colours.

“This survey provides significant reassurance that there is no public health and safety risk from the consumption of foods containing added colours as part of a balanced diet. The survey found that the concentrations of added colours in foods in Australia are very low, mostly less than 25% of the maximum permitted levels.” FSANZ Chief Scientist, Dr Paul Brent.

The FSANZ study found the average concentrations of artificial colours were well below the concentrations used in the UK study, and stated that the UK study found only limited evidence of the effect of food colours on children.

Australian Action On Food Colours

One supermarket chain in Australia has responded to the controversy surrounding food colours and announced it will withdraw fourteen colours from its range of own-branded products.

The German-owned chain ALDI will replace the six artificial food colours cited in the UK study as well as another eight it has described as “undesirable” with natural colours.

Some local manufacturers, included Nestle Australia, have also stopped using the controversial colours. Nestle Australia will no longer use artificial colours in its “Smarties” product.

Beware...

Food colours are often founds in the following foods:

Cakes
Muffins
Crackers
Cordial
Flavoured milk
Soft drinks
Confectionery
Medicine
Ice-cream
Iced doughnuts

Replace With These Colour-Free Foods…

The Organic Cook, Belinda Randell, has some suggestions on removing some food colours from your diet.

1.    Ice cupcakes with a variety of fruits and vegetables for colour.
2.    Make home made sausage rolls (the kids will love them and they will be free from artificial colours, flavours and trans fats).
3.    Make home made tomato sauce.
4.    Eat mini yoghurt cups naturally coloured and flavoured with berries.

Did you know the colour 120 (carmines/ carminic acid/ cochineal) comes from ground down bodies of female cochineal beetles? They help to provide pink, red and purple colours in food.

Further Information

Food colours are listed in the ingredients section on food labels. Colours are accompanied by code numbers in the 100 range. Click here for the FSANZ full list of food additives.

What goes into a strawberry milkshake?

Belinda Randell
Contact Belinda Randell through her website www.theorganiccook.com.au