County Councillor calls for a 'deep dive' into the impact of food additives on children

A Reform Derbyshire councillor has called for a deep-dive into food additives and their impact on health, claiming some “turn a child into a raving monster”.

Cllr Stuart Bent, Reform, made the comments in a Derbyshire County Council health scrutiny meeting on Monday, September 29th.

In the meeting, councillors put forward suggestions for future deep-dive topics to scrutinise and Cllr Bent suggested one ought to be “food additives and their effect on people’s health in general”.

He said: “There are certain colourings that would turn a child into a raving monster, a Jekyll and Hyde with regards to the colourings in lollies and stuff like that. 

“We have also got a lot of these ready meals and things which have got these artificial enhancements and flavours in them and after a long time I believe it can affect your mood and your wellbeing.”

Cllr David Harvey, Reform, chairman of the committee, agreed that there ought to be a look at processed foods, with a habit of people buying meals to “bang in the microwave”.

Councillors were told that a report may be brought by the authority’s public health team, who hold information on healthy eating.

Cllr Anne Clarke, Labour, suggested a deep-dive into children’s screen time and that she had recently participated in a meeting on the issue, involving Derbyshire’s police and crime commissioner and other officials.

Cllr Harvey supported this, saying: “It is how the world changes and it has how we adapt and use it.

“Obviously there is a lot of good stuff that comes out of them too. It is easy to concentrate on the bad stuff but they can be very educational.”

Cllr Joseph Turrell, Reform, said: “I think there are a lot of concerns that we can tell parents about but we are going to have to be careful to not get to the point where we are telling parents what to do and how to parent their own children.”

Cllr Harvey said: “I think it is probably easy to demonise, isn’t it?”

Other deep-dives set to take place are on “obesity jabs”, asbestos, long Covid, dementia, sickle cell and East Midlands Ambulance Service response times.