Certain artificial food colourings and other additives can worsen hyperactive behaviours in children aged 3 to 9, UK researchers report

Tests on more than 300 children showed significant differences in their behaviour when they drank fruit drinks spiked with a mixture of food colourings and preservatives, say Professor Jim Stevenson and colleagues at the University of Southampton

Children received ordinary fruit juice (a placebo

or a drink identical in look and taste that contained common commercial additives.

Colourings included sunset yellow

carmoisine or azorubine

tartrazine

and ponceau 4R

Both mixes had the same amount of the preservative sodium benzoate

Both mixtures significantly affected the older children, when compared with the placebo

"Although the use of artificial colouring in food manufacture might seem superfluous, the same cannot be said for sodium benzoate, which has an important preservative function,"

"The implications of these results

could be substantial."