The Food Standards Agency has decided to advise ministers to encourage food manufacturers to voluntarily remove food colourings by 2009.
In the light of the findings by Southampton University last year, and the review by the European Food Safety Authority this March, the FSA said there should also be "action to phase the colours out in food and drink in the EU over a specified period".
Dame Deirdre Hutton, chair of the FSA, told its April "open meeting" that it was the agency's duty to protect consumers - the six colourings in the study are believed to have the potential to cause hyperactivity in children.
?The Food and Drink Federations's director of communications Julian Hunt responded to the Food Standards Agency's announcement, calling it "bizarre," and said: "UK food and drink manufacturers are already taking these colours out, so we are surprised the board feels it is an appropriate use of their powers to call for a voluntary ban".?
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