Do you normally let your children eat marzipan, jams, sweets, brown sauce, yoghurts, jellies or cheesecake? If so, well then you’re up for real trouble if you listen to new research from the University of Southampton. All these products contain the chemical additive Carmoisine which is banned in Scandinavian countries, but not in the UK.The research, funded by a £0.75m grant from the Food Standards Agency, involved studying levels of hyperactivity in 152 three-year-olds and 144 8-year-olds.

Looking at the outcome, you would expect that the studywould have positive results; however, the study shows that when the children were given drinks containing a mixture of food colours and benzoate preservative, their behaviour was significantly more hyperactive.

So how is it that the preservatives are still being used in food in the UK?

The Food Standards Agency stopped a recommendation of an outright ban on chemical additives which were found to have links with hyperactive behaviour in children, instead blaming the food industry for failing to respond quickly enough to consumer demand to remove additives. These include red, yellow and orange dyes and the preservative benzoate.

It is interesting to note that Norway, named the country with the best standard of living, has already outlawed all the six colourings named in the study. And in Sweden, almost two decades ago, sweet ads aimed at under 12-year-olds were banned. Perhaps this should be the way forward for the UK as well, instead of spending money on research and then neglecting the result.