Starting today, European consumers can better protect their children from risky food. The EU nations will require foods manufactured with artificial colors to present the following warning on the label

“May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children”

This warning applies to 6 artificial food colorings that have been found to negatively affect neurological activity in children. If you’ve been wondering why your son or daughter go wild after eating a snack, perhaps it’s not a sugar rush, rather a food dye thing.

This decision is a death notice for these colorings. No food manufacturer will want such a turnoff on their products. Which means they’ll resort to natural, more expensive colorings.

Four of the 6 colors that EFSA has marked are widely used in the US. They are regarded as safe by the FDA and may be found in thousands of products across all supermarket categories. These are:

1. sunset yellow (E110) – known in the US as Yellow #6
2. tartrazine (E102) – aka Yellow #5
3. carmoisine (E122) – aka Red #3
4. allura red (E129) – aka Red #40

Some of the dyes are also suspected carcinogens.

This is great news for Europeans, who have governments that have a higher propensity to look out for consumers’ needs compared to the US. Our leadership is more business friendly. While we could debate the ideal form of government and corporate relationships for days on end, we prefer not to go there in this blog post.

What’s clear is this – more is being done to protect kids across the Atlantic puddle than here at home. As parents, we should be concerned. Let’s hope this new labeling regulation serves as a wake up call to the FDA and Congress, so that our kids can be better protected too. House Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) has already made a statement on this issue.

What to do at the supermarket:

It’s hard to imagine that labeling laws will change here anytime soon. Right now, YOU have to be vigilant about the products you buy for your family.

Scan ingredient lists of products such as cereals, yogurts, cakes, snacks, soups, and more for numbers next to colors (Yellow 5, Red 40. etc…) . If you see them, move on to an alternative product. If a product is too bright and colorful, and it’s not a fresh fruit or veggie, be suspicious.

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This week, a panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued an opinion on hundreds of food health claims and REJECTED about  two thirds of them. The claims requiring further scientific evidence include probiotics in yogurts, omega 3 fortification, and others.

In one opinion, the panel said the data provided weren’t compelling enough to justify the claim that the bacteria Lactobacillus casei F19 improves bowel functioning.

This is a blow to food giants such as Danone who are promoting their Actimel and Activia branded yogurts through the so called friendly bacteria. This is a double blow to Danone, whose US subsidiary agreed to pay $35M in  fines in an out of court settlement regarding dubious health claims for it Activia yogurts just last week.

What you need to know:

Health claims are used by food manufacturers to increase the attractiveness of their products. In some cases there is simply not enough scientific evidence to back up those claims. In many cases the science has been paid for by the manufacturers themselves who fund research at independent facilities and universities.

The EU, which in general tends to be more protective of consumers than the US, is now weighing several changes in food packaging information, including health claims and quick glance nutrition information such as “traffic lights” used in the UK.

What to do at the supermarket:

Unfortunately in the US, even flimsy health claims are allowed, mostly because companies threathen to sue the FDA for blocking their 1st amendment rights to free speech.

That’s why we suggest ignoring all health claims, and directly inspecting the nutrition panel and the ingredient list.

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Yesterday we wrote about the preposterous health claims on food and supplement packaging. Apparently they are still insufficient for some manufacturers. They are now suing the FDA to get more lenience in publishing marketing drivel in the guise of scientific recommendations.

We’re happy to learn that in other parts of the world, there is a more consumer friendly approach. Here is what’s happening in Europe:

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is conducting a scientific review of 4,000 health claims made by food producers, including cereal manufacturers. Most of the 60-plus rulings published so far for foods, including pro-biotic drinks and yoghurts, have been dismissive of industry health claims.

The European Commission is also developing a scheme to restrict food manufacturers promoting products on the basis of one or two healthy ingredients if they also contain “high” levels of sugar, saturated fat or salt.

Read more… (UK Times Online)

This means that most cereals will have to remove their misleading health claims, and start concentrating on reducing the vast amounts of sugar present in the most popular breakfast of the Western World.

The FDA would do well to learn from EFSA and UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) that, in this case, have placed consumer interest ahead of that of manufacturers.

Top o’ the morning to you all.

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