E-numbers should be banned in food and drink, say MPs

The associate parliamentary food and health forum - a grouping of parliamentarians and outside experts such as nutritionists, doctors and the food industry - says that the Food Standards Agency should be taking a tougher line on E-numbers and additives, which some studies suggest may over-stimulate children's brains and make them hyperactive.

The parliamentary group's inquiry concluded that the FSA should be more forthright in its warnings about E-numbers. It currently advises parents 'of children showing signs of hyperactivity' that cutting out certain artificial food colours might help their behaviour. The committee says the FSA should give that advice to all parents and point out that some of the additives allowed in the EU are banned in the USA and parts of Scandinavia.

Under the Food Safety Act 1990, the committee's report says, the health secretary should have 'regard to the desirability of restricting, so far as practicable, the use of substances of no nutritional value as foods or as ingredients of foods'. That gives the government the means to ban both food colourings and non-essential preservatives, it says.