MEPs back ban on bright colouring additives in food 

MEPs were voting on 6 May 2008 on a recommendation for a second plenary reading of a Commission proposal to regulate food additives.

MEPs broadly backed the Council's common position, agreed on 10 March 2008, but reintroduced some of the rejected amendments and even introduced new ones.

The committee voted to reintroduce a demand for the risk assessment and approval of food additives to be carried out in accordance with the precautionary principle. Meanwhile, the Council argues that the precautionary principle is one of the general principles underlying EU food law and consequently automatically applies to the proposed regulation, with no need for a specific reference to it. 

As for the new amendments, MEPs state that "if there is evidence that a specific additive may cause undesirable side-effects (for example azo dyes), the Commission, in consultation with the member states, should take immediate action to ban such a substance".

Azo dyes are very bright colourings (like E 107 or E 110 ), used in sweets and soft drinks, for example. The new amendment was tabled after new scientific information from the University of Southampton and the European Food Safety Authority revealed it could create hyper-activity for children. 

MEPs asked for foods containing these dyes be labelled in the following way: "Azo dyes may provoke allergenic effects and hyper-activity in children." 

"I'm really pleased for the children in the EU. University studies have shown that a 'cocktail' of azodyes make kids hyper-active. The Commission must follow the Precautionary Principle on food additives," said the rapporteur on the additives, Swedish Socialist MEP Åsa Westlund.

However, she regretted that the European Food Safety Agency's study on azodyes concluded that a ban was unnecessary. "The problem with the EFSA study - unlike the Southampton University study - is that it doesn't take into account the risk when children get a mix of different azo-dyes," she said.