Posted on: 21 January 2025

Consumers buying American-style and imported sweets are being urged to check the label to ensure that they do not contain additives banned in the UK.
Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service says that imported sweets that have not been approved for sale are becoming increasingly available in shops across the region.
They have highlighted five additives in particular that consumers should look out for which are legal in the US but are not permitted in the UK.
These are:
- Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO)
- E127, Erythrosine (also known as Red 3 which is allowed in cocktail cherries, but not sweets.)
- Mineral Oil/White Mineral Oil
- Bleached Flour
- Zinc Aspartate
The warning follows ongoing work by Trading Standards who have so far inspected hundreds of products intended for non-UK food markets but are being sold in some shops, nevertheless.
Officers have carried out unannounced inspections of shops looking for non-compliant sweets, breakfast cereals, bakery goods, snacks and canned/carbonated drinks.
So far, they have identified and removed products from sale containing unauthorised additives or displaying non-compliant labelling.
Additives are only authorised in the UK if they have been tested and proved to be safe for its intended use in that particular type of food or drink or if there is a justifiable technological need to use it.
A tell-tale sign if an imported product has not been approved in the UK can be seen on the label.
For instance, a US product that hasn’t been approved would list nutritional information as ‘Nutrition Facts’ and carry an American company name and address.
If the product was legal for sale in the UK, it would list a UK subsidiary of that company and often would include supplementary UK-compliant labelling placed over the original information in the form of a sticker.
Julie Richardson, the Lead Food Officer for Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service, said: “Increasingly we are seeing products banned in the UK on sale.
“If you see confectionary which you are unfamiliar with it may be imported so we advise you read label first to see if it contains one of the additives listed.
“We ask retailers to urgently remove items from sale that contain unauthorised ingredients.”