Additives in juice drinks

Many children start to drink fruit juices and juice-type drinks when they are still young. But are these drinks really what they seem?

Fortunately the main fruit juice brands seem to have reduced their dependence on food additives in recent years and have cleaned up their ingredients rather well. Brands like Berri, Just Juice and Golden Circle are all free of artificial colours and E211 preservative.

However other popular brands like the Schweppes Pop Tops range contain both artificial colours and E211, a shocking combination that can lead to significant hyperactivity in some children. The Pop Tops are popular because of their handy size and easy-to-open pop-up lids. They are ideal for children to use without spilling.

Similarly a number of juice drinks in takeaway outlets are also popular - you know the ones with pictures of Spiderman, Dora or Thomas on the front and the ones our children always nag us to have because the pictures look so good. Sadly, however, these also contain artificial colours in them and they can quickly send some children into a hyperactive frenzy.

I remember my own son having some of these drinks during shopping trips in the past. One minute he was fine and then, soon after consuming one of these drinks, he became so hyper, unruly and badly behaved I simply had to abandon my shopping plans and just go home.

The worst thing is that the branding and marketing of these products is so good that parents and children alike are regularly conned into buying them. It is not until we work out the ingredients inside them (apart from all the sugar, of course) that we toughen up and say 'no'.

I would also have hoped that a company like Schweppes would be more responsible with their ingredients. But sadly not.

Cordial drinks also need a cautionary approach.

Most of the Cottees range of cordials (except Pine Lime) are free from artificial colours and E211.

The Golden Circle range (except lime cordial) can also boast on most of its labels that drinks have 'no artificial colours' included in them. However looking at the small print on the back of the bottles reveal they still contains E211 in their ingredients - so they are really not as safe as they try to claim.

Another difficulty is that the ingredient labels on many of these products are so small that you often need a magnifying glass to find them and read them.

But clearly it is vital that we all make the effort to check out the ingredients before giving these drinks to our kids.  Then, if we stop buying those brands with unnecessary additives, we might gradually start seeing companies adjusting to consumer demands.

We can only hope .....!

What is E211?

We talk about artificial colours in our food and drink and we also talk about preservative 211. But what exactly is E211?

Well, it is a chemical preservative used in food, drinks and medicines and is otherwise known as sodium benzoate. A UK study has linked it to hyperactivity in children, especially when combined with artificial colours.

In chemistry terms it is the sodium salt of benzoic acid and can be produced by reacting sodium hydroxide with benzoic acid. 


• Benzoic acid is often used as a food preservative to inhibit the growth of mould
• Sodium hydroxide is also known as caustic soda and is found in many strong and industrial cleaning products

Sodium benzoate is also used in cosmetics and toiletries such as body wash.

It is also used in fireworks as a fast-burning rocket fuel to help produce that famous whistling sound.

Sodium benzoate is clearly, therefore, a very powerful substance.

So, do we really need sodium benzoate in our food? 

Personally my view is a resounding "No." However, many food manufacturers seem to disagree (or not care) as this E211 preservative can be found in numerous products such as sauces, dips, confectionery, fruit juices, fizzy drinks and some medicines. I even found it in a pre-made Christmas cake.

But clearly it is not a necessary additive as many other products seem to do very well without it. Take the most obvious example, the content of fizzy drinks (not that I am advocating fizzy drinks for young children, of course). Some varieties have them and some do not.

It is fascinating to see that Coca-Cola and Pepsi do not have it in their standard cola products. However they do have it in their variants such as Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Pepsi Max. It is also present in Solo (by Schweppes), Sprite (by Coca-Cola) and others. On the other hand, it is not present in Fanta and Lift drinks (both Coca-Cola products).

Interestingly also, Schweppes lemonade is free from E211 if you buy it in a bottle format, but it does contain E211 if you buy it in the canned format.

The flavoured mineral water drinks, with ranges offered by Schweppes and Deep Spring, also contain E211. The new LOL brand of drinks do not.

As for medicines - there are so many cough mixtures which contain E211, as well as children's Panadol, children's Claratyne and others. Yet children's Nurofen and Bisolven cough mixture do not have this preservative.

Clearly my conclusion therefore has to be that this highly questionable preservative is not at all necessary for inclusion in our food. Why must our families be subjected to this additive when it is clearly not needed.

Keep using it in fireworks and cosmetics if you must. But please leave it out of our food, drinks and medicines.