E number guide

A study involving 1800 rats (equal quantities of male and female) had previously linked aspartame intake with increased lymphomas and leukemias in the female ones. The study was set up to stimulate the amount of aspartame that humans would take, but the industry argues that the amounts the scientists used was out - by a large factor. They hit out saying that “The researchers at Ramazzini have not followed the internationally established protocol for evaluation of animal carcinogenicity study findings,� said the organization. Their justification for this mainly being, it seems, that the Ramazzini study is not in the MedLine (National Library of Medicine) database.

Further Reading:

• E951 - Aspartame
• in-pharmatechnologist.com

Sunset Yellow (also FCF Orange Yellow S, FD&C Yellow 6) is a colourant used in foods. Wikipedia tells us that it is a synthetic coal tar and azo yellow dye useful in fermented foods which must be heat treated. It may be found in orange squash, orange jelly, marzipan, Swiss roll, apricot jam, citrus marmalade, lemon curd, sweets, hot chocolate mix and packet soups, trifle mix, breadcrumbs and cheese sauce mix and soft drinks.

Bad news is that it can cause allergic reactions in some causing rashes and according the the UK Food Guide website: “Side effects are urticaria (hives), rhinitis (runny nose), nasal congestion, allergies, hyperactivity, kidney tumors, chromosomal damage, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, indigestion, distaste for food; increased incidence of tumors in animals.”

If that’s not bad enough, it has more recently been linked with cancer.

Unsurprisingly E110 - Sunset Yellow is a banned additive in Finland and Norway.

Further Reading:

• E100 - Sunset Yellow
• UK Food Guide
• Wikipedia

Crisp makers are defending their products in Ireland after it was revealed that 7% of children there consume at least one packet a day. This is part of the blame for childhood obesity. The defense of the manufacturers is that crisps are natural products make from natural nutritional ingredients. Jennifer Allen from the Limerick post rubbishes this saying that “while the crisps may have started off as natural raw ingredients, the nutrition is largely lost through processingâ€?.
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The Daily Mail reports that the food additive Sunset Yellow (E110) has been linked with cancer. The colouring is often found in curries, sweets, soft drinks, chocolate snacks, sauces and pickles. Although already banned in Finland and Norway, and removed from its products by the supermarket chain “Co-op” the FSA says that it the problem is small enough not to consider a ban.

The problem is not so much in the colour itself. But that as a byproduct of the production process there may be small quantities of Sudan 1 present. The chemical colouring that caused mass recall of food products earlier this year.

Read the article from The Daily Mail, including statements from the Food Standards Agency on the page titled “Food colour linked to cancer”

This site will gradually grow to list and document all the E numbers used as additives in foods. For more info at the moment, visit the About page and the page I’m currently writing called History of the E number