Just a quickie to draw your attention to a handy UK site called Action on Additives. You may remember last September there was a lot of publicity surrounding additives in children’s food in the UK, and I went sleuthing around reading medicine bottles and learning lots about additives.
Action on Additives has been set up by the UK’s Food Commission, a not-for-profit company which campaigns for healthier, safer food in the UK.
Its aims are impressive:
The Action on Additives campaign aims to list all the foods, drinks and medicines which contain the additives linked to hyperactivity in susceptible children*.
It highlights the use of seven of the baddies of the additive world:
Tartrazine (E102) an artificial, yellow food colouring – banned from all foods and drinks for the under threes.
Quinoline yellow (E104) an artificial, yellow food colouring – banned from all foods and drinks for the under threes. Quinoline yellow is banned in the USA and other countries, but permitted for use in the UK.
Sunset yellow (E110) an artificial, orange / yellow food colouring – banned from all foods and drinks for the under threes.
Carmoisine (E122) an artificial, red food colouring – banned from all foods and drinks for the under threes, but is still used in some medicines for the under threes. Carmoisine is banned in the USA and other countries, but permitted for use in the UK.
Ponceau 4R (E124) is an artificial, red food colouring – banned from all foods and drinks for the under threes. Ponceau 4R is banned in the USA and other countries, but permitted for use in the UK.
Allura red (E129) an artificial, red food colouring – banned from all foods and drinks for the under threes.
Sodium benzoate (E211) an artificial food preservative – banned from all foods and drinks for the under threes, but is allowed in medicines aimed at children of the same age.
You can search their database for types of foods or specific brands and see which of the 7 big bads the foods contain. There are currently 1015 products listed and you can submit your own findings on the site too.
While this information is really important and very valuable to parents and consumers, the cynic in me is cynical when I read that the site has been funded by a charity, the Organix Foundation, which is in turn funded by a food company, Organix, which produces organic food for children.
Organix, while certainly not the worst, are guilty of some of the usual offences, their easily recognisable & funky packaging implies a fun image to kids, they have a “food club” which fosters brand loyalty among children, they market their baby food at 4-6 months, not 6+ months, which normalises an earlier weaning age, but I must admit we do buy some of their products when out and about as they are one of the few baby food companies which are not also marketing formula (I tend to, wherever possible, not buy baby foods from the formula companies as most of them have appalling marketing practices).
However, my sleuthing has revealed that Organix have recently been bought by a Swiss company, Hero Group, and are now part of a large food empire, including a few infant formula brands, so there goes that plan! I’ve had a look through their brand list but I don’t recognise any of their other brands. It’s interesting though, seems to be part of a bigger trend in the worldwide baby food industry.
With regards to the Action on Additives campaign, I’m sure their support isn’t entirely altrustic. It certainly can’t hurt them to highlight the problems with other manufacturer’s products, while associating their own name with wholesome additive-free food!
Still though, cynicism aside, the Action on Additives website is well worth a look, it’s quite scary reading really!
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