March 23 - Cadbury has dismissed as “wrong” accusations made by a UK food watchdog that it has broken promises to remove food colours linked to hyperactivity in some children from its products.
The confectionery giant declared as false allegations levelled by the Food Commission that it had reneged on pledges to eradicate six food colours and sodium benzoate from certain products by the end of last year. The food body has stated that some of Cadbury’s chocolate products still contained some of the colourings highlighted in a University of Southampton study, accusing the company of failing to keep a commitment made in 2007.
However, a Cadbury spokesman told FLEXNEWS today the company had vowed to remove the additives from sweets by the end of 2008 – which does not include chocolate products – a promise it had fulfilled. The confectionery industry is divided into three segments; sweets (or candy), chocolate and chewing gum, the firm said
A Cadbury statement said: “The Food Commission has got it wrong. We achieved our goal of removing all artificial colours from our sweets range by the end of last year as we promised. There are a very small number of chocolate products, such as Cadbury Creme Egg, which also contain colours, that presented more difficult technical challenges.
“However, we have resolved these and, as of this month, no Creme or Mini Creme Eggs leaving our factories contain artificial colours. We have completed testing on the remaining chocolate brands to ensure consumers enjoy the same quality, and these will also be switched over in the coming months."
The university study, published in 2007, found consumption of the preservative sodium benzoate (E211), or of six artificial colours; tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129), can exacerbate the behavioural problems of some children. The UK Food Standard’s Agency set up a voluntary ban of the colours in 2008 in response to the research. It also led the European Union to propose that any food containing them should carry a warning on the label from mid-2010 onwards.
The Food Commission also accused Mars of failing to keep its promise to remove the colours from its products, alleging Starburst Choozers still contained two of the colours and Revels had three of the six substances.
Mars said it had begun to remove additives from its products in 2006 in response to consumer concern. While two of it products, Starburst Chews and Skittles, were free of the controversial colours by the end of 2007, it said it had only achieved such success with Starburst Choozers recently and that Revels and Minstrels were likely to contain the additives until the end of this year.
A company statement said: “By the end of 2008, all of the Southampton seven additives were removed from all of our chocolate products except for Minstrels and Revels which we are working to achieve by the end of 2009 - this information has been publicly available on our consumer care website for several months.
“In addition, we had planned to achieve the removal of Southampton Colours from Starburst Choozers by the end of 2008, but have encountered some small technical difficulties which means that this has been delayed by a few weeks. On 6 March, we started to manufacture Starburst Choozers free from these colours and anticipate these will start to appear on shelves in May."