Food additives as a de-merit good

How badly would you miss a Turkish Delight, a Battenburg cake, tinned strawberries or mush peas?

The UK Food Standards Agency is meeting this week to debate whether up to half a dozen food additives - namely tartrazine, quinoline yellow, sunset yellow, carmoisine, ponceau, and allura red - should be removed from food manufacturing in the UK. The ban would apparently have to be voluntarily enforced by British food manufacturers but given the growing weight of scientific evidence on the damaging effects of these additives on young people in particular, I cannot understand why stronger and more decisive action cannot be taken. There are clear external costs involved - not least the damaging effects of hyperactivity on children’s behaviour and performance in school and the impact on their braind development. Further more, many food manufacturers deliberately try to hide evidence of additives in their products by hiding them away in the very small print on packagaing. As the Food Standards Agency’s own web site says:

“Spotting the additives is not easy – they are listed in ingredients lists, but the print is often very small and they can be listed by either their name or their E number. Some foods are sold without any packaging, and the additives may also be used in restaurant and take-away food. The additives also crop up in medicines for both children and adults.”

‘Food additives ‘could be as damaging as lead in petrol’ (Independent 5 April 2008)

Food additives are a de-merit good and firm action is needed to eliminate as many of them as possible from food production in the UK. Stronger lobbying is also needed to make progress in reducing the use of additives across the whole of the European Union - what is the European Food Standards Agency for?