Brussels, Sep. 6 - The European Commission has asked European Union food safety officials to probe a U.K. study that links some artificial food additives to increased hyperactivity in children, the Brussels-based executive and regulatory arm of the E.U. said Thursday.
The commission asked the European Food Safety Authority to look into the matter following the release of a Southampton University study that warns that hyperactivity in children can be spurred by a cocktail of certain artificial food colorings and the preservative sodium benzoate. The study was funded by the U.K. Food Standards Agency.
Pending the results of the food safety authority's evaluation, Brussels could either decide the additives in question are safe and do nothing; decide the additives are safe enough to stay on the market but must come with additional labeling instructions and warnings; or decide the additives aren't safe enough for public consumption and ban them entirely from the E.U. market, as it did for the food coloring Red 2G earlier this summer.
The additives used in the Southampton University study, to be probed now by the E.U. authority, are Sunset Yellow (E110), Quinoline Yellow (E104), Carmoisine (E122), Allura Red (129) and sodium benzoate (E211).
Any additive permitted for sale and consumption in the E.U.'s 27 nations has already been approved by the authority, according to commission spokesman Michael Mann. He added, however, that the authority is currently conducting a routine and "extensive re-evaluation" of all additives on the E.U. market, starting with color additives, "to ensure that their safety assessment is still valid in light of the latest scientific data and technological developments."
In addition to this routine review, the commission has asked the E.U. authority to deliver an assessment specifically on the additives in question by the end of the year, in response to the U.K. findings.