How banning artificial food additives would impact chemical industry

Food fight

24 April 2008 00:00  [Source: ICB]

Campaigners blame artificial food additives for poor health and behavioral problems. But should these ingredients really be banned?
Andy Brice/London

LAST MONTH, independent watchdog the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) rejected attempts to ban certain artificial food additives across the region.

Having considered the results of the latest in a long line of studies looking for a link between additives and the adverse effects on human behavior, the EFSA ruled that the research was too limited for a ban. It also deemed it unnecessary to adjust its recommendations for daily consumption.

But what amounts to bad news for food safety organizations, comes as a welcome relief to the producers of the much-maligned ingredients.

The global food additives market is growing rapidly. According to a report from US-based market research firm Global Industry Analysts, the sector will be worth $29bn (€18bn) by 2010, up from around $26.7bn this year.

Europe currently dominates the market, with a 34% share (see box), although Asia-Pacific is tipped as the fastest-growing region, with a compound annual growth rate of around 5.25% from 2001-2010.

For chemical manufacturers, the industry is big business.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that the £750,000 ($1.5m, €948,000) six-week study, commissioned by the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) and led by researchers at the University of Southampton, in the UK, did suggest a link between additives and hyperactivity in children. The study, looking at six artificial food colors and the preservative sodium benzoate, was published in September 2007. It was the largest of its kind, and involved a sample size of around 300 individuals.

The FSA responded by publishing recommendations that children showing signs of hyperactivity or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder should avoid certain food colorings. Sunset yellow (E110), allura red (E129), tartrazine (E102), quinoline yellow (E104), carmoisine (E122) and ponceau 4R (E124) were all deemed culpable. The last three are already banned in the US and Canada, and have restricted use in Australia.

Anna Glayzer, coordinator of public safety campaign Action on Additives, admits she was "disappointed with the decision, but not entirely surprised," and has urged food manufacturers to take matters into their own hands by phasing them out anyway.

Suppliers of more than 1,000 foods containing these additives have already been named and shamed on the campaign's website. "We have some concerns that the interests of industry get put ahead of the consumer," she says. "Certainly, this study has brought the issue to light. This story is not yet over."

The FSA has since held a board meeting, and proposed that artificial colorings be voluntarily phased out in the UK by 2009.

Even before the latest research, numerous retailers had pandered to consumer demand by vowing to remove synthetic additives from their product lines.

Last May, ASDA - the UK supermarket owned by US retailer Wal-Mart - said it had put aside some £30m for reformulating products and "stripping out the nasties" from its 9,000-strong range of ASDA-branded foods and soft drinks.

Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's and Tesco are among other UK retailers taking similar steps to remove artificial colors and flavors from their own private-label foods.

This is not the first time the health implications of additives have been called in to question.

This study, like others before it, may not have led to regulatory change, but it has heaped additional, unnecessary, pressure on the manufacturers, says Richard Ratcliffe, executive secretary of the UK-based Food Additives and Ingredients Association (FAIA) - part of the Chemical Industries Association.

"There is an undercurrent of hysteria around food additives," he says. "To say they are unnecessary is a bit like saying: 'Let's get rid of half of our food ingredients.' That's where it becomes a nonsense.

"I think we should be much more worried about being overweight and the high saturated fat content of food, than we should with additives. Food scientists are responsible people at the end of the day, the industry doesn't want to poison its customers because it won't be in business. This is an industry under pressure financially from retailers who are trying to keep costs down all the time."

Few of the foods that line our shelves are free of antioxidants, acidulants, colorings, emulsifiers, flavor enhancers, preservatives, stabilizers or sweeteners. Not only do they stop food from deteriorating, make it more appealing visually or improve the taste, but they satisfy our growing appetite for convenience and variety.

Food additives are fundamental, agrees Jeya Henry, professor of human nutrition at the School of Life Sciences at Oxford Brookes University in the UK. "You cannot ban them all because they are necessary for processing, preservation and to reduce the risk of microbe growth and toxicity."

Banning them could cause ill health, he says, far outweighing any threat posed by the artificial ingredients themselves. Furthermore, with stories of food shortages hitting the headlines and our increasing desire for low-cost food, the use of preservatives and other additives is inevitable.

"In the past, we may have been a little less introspective on the use and range of additives, but now, because of the sharp focus of consumers and the industry, there is more testing.

"I think it's certainly increasing paperwork and cost - and some of the restrictions and regulations likely to emerge in the coming years are likely to stifle creativity and innovation among smaller manufacturers."

More than 300 additives are currently approved in the EU, with each one assigned an E number - a stamp of approval similar to the kitemark symbol, which is recognized across Europe. Although this is designed to reassure customers, the mention of E numbers often seems to carry negative connotations.

Colorings get most of the bad press, says Ratcliffe, but removing them all would mean a lot of food would not get eaten. "We eat with our eyes. No one would eat a tin of processed peas without any coloring, and margarine would be white rather than yellow - and look very unappetising," he says.

Thanks largely to this publicity, and the growing concerns of consumers and major retailers about health and wellbeing, there has been a seismic shift away from artificial colors towards more natural products over the past five to 10 years.

Although this trend is set to continue, it is unlikely to be too detrimental to the synthetic market.

Towards the end of 2006, the EFSA started its reevaluation of all food additives used in the EU, which it pledged to complete within a decade. Colorings were the first to be reviewed because they were among the first additives to be evaluated under European legislation.

Last July, the food coloring Red 2G (E128) emerged as one of the first casualties of the EFSA's assessment and was banned. Laboratory testing showed that the additive - used in certain types of sausage and burger meat - produced the carcinogen aniline and was potentially harmful to human health.

The analysis of some 45 colorings is expected to emerge later this year.

Quite whether this will serve to reassure the critics or merely strengthen their resolve to ban all additives remains to be seen.

For now, at least, the war of attrition - or nutrition - continues.

Global sales of food additives ($m)

Region	2005	2008	2010
North America	7,166.67	7,962.35	8,598.51
Europe	8,198.37	9,183.57	10,015.53
Asia	5,196.72	6,006.73	6,673.80
Rest of World	3,158.03	3,579.20	3,927.64
TOTAL	23,719.79	26,731.85	29,215.48

Source: Global Industry Analysts

 

GUESS WHAT FOOD THIS IS?

We come into contact with thousands of food additives each day, of which an estimated half a million are naturally occurring. So could we really live without them?

Can you guess which food contains all of the following ingredients?

Water

Sugar

Cellulose

Flavor enhancer

-E621 monosodium glutamate

Colors

-E160a carotene

-E160d lycopene

-E101 riboflavin

Antioxidant

-E300 ascorbic acid

Acids

-E330 citric acid

-E296 malic acid

-Oxalic acid

Flavorings

The answer: A tomato contains all these ingredients naturally.

SOURCE: FAIA

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