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Artificial food additives have a significant impact on children’s behaviour, according to a new study.

In a four-week trial, 300 children were kept on a diet free from artificial colours and preservatives. For the second and fourth week they were given daily fruit juice, some of which had colourings and preservatives added and some didn’t. The parents did not know which type of juice their child had been given.

The children’s behaviour was assessed before the study began and regularly throughout the study by formal clinical assessment and by parents’ diaries. Parents reported that their children became significantly less hyperactive when the artificial colours and preservatives were withdrawn, and much more hyperactive when they were put back in.

The journal Archives of Disease in Childhood reports that for children with high hyperactivity scores the prevalence was reduced from 15 to 6 per cent according to parents’ assessment, though all the effects were seen irrespective of whether the child was hyperactive or allergic before the study started.

The formal clinical assessments did not reflect the changes. However, researchers believe parents’ ratings may be more sensitive than clinical assessment and suggest that removing tartrazine, sunset yellow and carmoisine colourings, and the preservative sodium benzoate from food could be in the long-term interests of public health.