Kids on the coast

by Kim Lahey

They surround us. They protect us. There’s a mind-numbing amount of them. And one was once traded ounce-for-ounce for gold.

Mammoth-tasked with keeping our food fresh and helping out its colour, taste or texture, these remedy-giants can hardly hide. In the label-jungle out there, additives still must obey rules. They must sit in descending weight-order (like other well-behaved ingredients) and they must state their (functional) name and code number.

At the very least, who hasn’t checked out a wine bottle label and noticed Preservative (220)? But we would hardly have felt gratitude - to the sulphur dioxide for prolonging the life of wine – or attributed its presence to our own demands!

Having our cake…

Our pressure for our food to be tasty, well priced and look good is additives’ lifeblood. Think of sliced apple yelling to oxygen - “Stop! You’re turning me brown!” Prevention of this ‘demise-by-oxygen’ in hundreds of our processed foods gives the antioxidant additives the lions’ share of additives’ work.

And without another of our most widely used additives – Ascorbic acid (aka Vitamin C) - a good dose of scurvy may have rendered us extinct long ago.

But do we really need the 1400 of them? And what’s natural and what’s not?

Who watched SBS’s Food Additives - An Incredible Adventure late last year? The presenter went to quite ‘personal’ lengths to prove many additives are made of naturally occurring chemicals like those found in our bodies, by making a cake with ….. Read on if you’re game.

He offered his tear drops (Lysozyme - a preservative which prevents bacterial infection), sweat (Propionic acid - a mould suppressant), hair strands (L-Cysteine – a flour improvement agent), digestive juices (Hydrochloric acid –an acidity regulator) and endured liposuction to provide the glycerol component to the recipe – the magic ingredient that keeps cakes and icing moist….

Downing the cake, he made his point “Just because it’s made in a lab doesn’t mean it’s not natural.”

Hyper or Hype?

Screaming, crying, running: Birthday party. Host pours the kids red cordial. Scathing glances at host by other parents.

“My 3-year-old goes berserk within minutes of downing red-colouring stuff, and he’s a pretty calm kid in the scheme of things,” mum Fi says.

So are the food-colouring glares justified?

In 2006 FSANZ commissioned the most detailed survey of added colours in food and beverages ever undertaken in Australia. It concluded; “current exposure levels (of added colours) – do not pose a public health and safety concern for Australians.” Not surprisingly the biggest contributors to under 12s’ dietary exposure (of added colours) were; confectionary and sugar, sweet biscuits, flavoured milk, cordial, soft drink, ice-cream/ice confection, margarine/table spread, cakes, muffins and pastries, savoury sauces and yogurt, jelly and savoury snack foods.

But recent UK studies showed a link between artificial food colours, a preservative and hyperactivity in children. In their sample of 3-year-old and 8 to 9-year-olds, they found that consuming food or drinks which contained certain artificial food colours, together with the preservative sodium benzoate, produced hyperactive behaviour in the children. Interestingly, the food colours and preservative used in the study are approved as safe in Australia.

FSANZ communication adviser Lydia Buchtmann explains Sodium benzoate (211) is a preservative found naturally in fruit, including berries. “It plays an important role in preventing food poisoning,” she says. “We’ve been working with the food industry to reduce levels of sodium benzoate since an Australian Total Diet Study in 2005, and [because of] concerns about Sodium benzoate reacting with vitamin C in some soft drinks to form benzene,” Lydia says. New studies are underway to check level reductions.

What about natural colours? Nutritionist and dietitian Catherine Saxelby says the orange-yellow food colour - Carotene (160a) - derived from plant pigments (think pumpkin, carrots, mango and apricots) functions as an antioxidant so this one is actually good for you.

And what about the not-so-red part of that cordial?

Cyclamates are one type of artificial sweetener added to foods and drinks. FSANZ’s 2004 research showed Australian kids under 12 were having close to the ADI (the amount considered safe to have per day) - of cyclamate. FSANZ successfully recommended the maximum level of cyclamate permitted in water-based flavoured drinks (like soft drinks and fruit and vegetable juice products) be reduced from 600 mg/kg to 350 mg/kg.

Recent studies using MRI scans demonstrated the brain can detect a difference between sugar and artificial sweeteners. It registers the missing calories and may go in search of them later on. Ah, a whole new jungle to explore!

Reactions and reasons

Nutrition Australia nutrition program manager Aloysa Hourigan says a minority of children are affected by additives. But it is a “very important issue for some families”, she says. Additives’ impacts will vary with different children. Symptoms can be physical like eczema, asthma or bowel symptoms, or behavioural, she says. “Not all additives are an issue.” “The best way to avoid them is to prepare food from fresh – but this can be difficult for parents from a time perspective,” Aloysa says.

The Victorian Government’s Better Health Channel advises that additives aren’t a problem for most people, but 50 of the 400 Australian-approved additives have been linked with adverse reactions in some people. “It is often the additives that are used to give a food a marketable quality, such as colour, that most commonly cause allergic reactions,” they advise. The possible problem-causing common additives are listed as the flavour enhancer Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) plus the food colourings and preservatives – benzoates, nitrates and sulphites. The code numbers and the types of reactions they can cause are detailed on the Channel’s website.

“Many people with food allergies/intolerances will have a certain level of tolerance to the offending agent – but in young children this threshold can be very low,” Aloysa says

If parents suspect their child is additive-sensitive it’s best to seek advice from an accredited practising dietitian, Aloysa says. She points out that people who are food intolerant can react to naturally occurring chemicals already in food like salicylates and amines – so there may be a need to consider even the fresh food content of the diet.

Additive-smart kids

Teacher and mother-of-two Bridy Fulvio is so sure of the link between additives and kids’ health, she teamed up with mother-of-two Olivia Dyer to write a cookbook - Low to No Additives Family Favourites - to warn parents on how to avoid additives.

Bridy thinks it’s never too late to start teaching children about what’s in their food. Start by encouraging kids to understand real food versus processed food, she says. “Real food does not often have any additives!”

The next step is to look for numbers. “In our house we have banned additive 211,” Bridy says. When her children are offered a soft drink her five-year-old asks ‘does it have additive 211?’ “And if it does, he simply refuses”, she says.

Bridy thinks it’s important to show children images of what additives could be made of. “Would we drink anti-mould agents? Well, then why would we have it in soft drink!”she says.

Bridy says her five-year-old “could be brain-washed, but he knows why he makes choices and it makes him feel confident he made good choices too!” At parties he often chooses to drink water, instead of cordial or lemonade, she explains.

Checking out packets on supermarket shelves has been a great educator for Bridy’s kids. “Now they know food labeled with bright funky colours and items low on shelves (‘how come they are not up here where mummy can see them?’) at the register are often laden with terrible additives.” “They also check and if there are more than three (additive) numbers, that is usually a ‘no’, unless mum checks to see if it’s safe,” Bridy says.

Bridy recently took a group of grade 5/6 kids on a supermarket trip to buy one item of choice and one healthy item. “They were horrified when they got back to class and decoded what they were really about to eat,” she says. “It’s always great if you get the one that can be derived from hair!”

Our mums told us not to judge a book by a cover - she must have been talking about additives! If we take stock of the reason an additive is in a food and it’s just to make that food look better – to ‘lure us in’ – we all know what our mum would do.

The additives with the plainest covers can trick us too. Salt, the oldest known additive – once worth its weight in gold – might be an essential nutrient, but in the doses we are consuming nowadays (some experts say eight times what we should, thanks to packaged food!) it may not glow so bright.

All in all, it’s another good excuse to steer clear of the junk and processed offerings.

Who calls the shots?

Additives must be approved by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). They check the additive is safe (at the requested level), there are good technological reasons for its use, and that the consumer will be clearly informed about it. FSANZ estimates the likely amount to be consumed and compares it to the acceptable daily intake (ADI). The ADI is the amount of the additive that can be eaten every day in a lifetime without adverse effect. FSANZ then recommends a maximum level of the additive allowed in that particular food. And out of 1400 additives (codes 100 to 1521!) only 300 - 400 qualify for Australian use.

Additives answers at your fingertips

Former nurse, IT expert and now-new-mum of twins, Sandy Abram’s latest business venture helps shoppers check out what’s in their food while they shop. “Reading labels is a minefield,” says Sandy. “And I thought; why not make use of our phones, which we have with us anyway.”

Tapping into a phone app, the shopper will be able to uncover all there is to know about the additive code while the packet’s still half-way into the trolley. “It will include a list of the top 10 nasties of additives and colours which emerge from research,” she says. The app will also include tailored shopping requirements for those with special dietary needs.

Sandy says subscribers will have access to additive information at their fingertips when the app is launched mid-year.

NEWS FLASH

A just-released report - Labelling Logic - commissioned by the Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council, aims to improve food labelling laws. Two of the report’s 61 recommendations include dropping mandatory “per serve” columns (explicitly stating the trans-fats and salt content instead) and voluntary use of a front-of-pack traffic light system. A traffic light system (a nutritionist-calculated rating system for nutrients, salt and sugar in a product) like the one adopted by Western Australian schools, would include five lights for more detail. The report was prepared by a panel of independent experts, led by former federal health minister Neal Blewett. If the food is changed in any way, whether by colour, taste or genetic modification, it must be labelled, Dr Blewett said. The Government has until December this year to respond to the report

For more information:

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) provide a list of all additives and their code numbers, advice about what additives do, and fact sheets about the effects of artificial colours(which includes the official list of additives by number, name and use). Visit: www.foodstandards.gov.au

Low to No Additives Visit: www.lowtonoadditives.com

Nutrition Australia offers food fact-sheets and answers to a range of nutrition questions www.nutritionaustralia.org

Dietitians Association of Australia provides food additive lists (by name or code number) and tells you where to get help from a dietitian. Visit: www.daa.asn.au

The Victorian Government’s The Better Health Channel lists food additives which can cause reactions. Visit: www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au

Foodwatch with Catherine Saxelby outlines answers to frequently asked questions about additives and food labels Visit: www.foodwatch.com.au

Additive phone app – due for launch mid 2011. Visit: www.ourfood.com.au

SBS’s Food Additives, an incredible adventure. Visit: www.sbs.com.au

Further reading

Low to No Additives – Family Favourites sets out what’s in processed food, what additives to avoid and provides diverse recipes. RRP $24.95.

Choosing the Right Stuff- the official shoppers’ guide teaches you how to read labels and understand food additives, kilojoules and fat content. It includes the official list of additives by number, name and use RRP $14.95.