FOOD NEWS
UK Government Seized Popular Treats Over Illegal Ingredients
BY BRIAN UDALL
In December 2023, the U.K. government raided local candy stores and seized roughly £8,000 (equivalent to around 10,000 USD) of American treats due to banned ingredients.
Items such as Mountain Dew, Jolly Ranchers, Sunny D, Swedish Fish, Twizzlers, and Lemonheads were taken from 22 different shops in Staffordshire and Burton-on-Trent.
Candy manufacturers must follow different guidelines for products that will enter the British market versus the U.S. market, and much of it is not checked for compliance.
Many of the seized sweets contained one or more of three banned ingredients. Red Dye 3 is made from petroleum and has been linked to thyroid cancer and hyperactivity.
Mineral oil is perfectly safe for consumption on its own but, according to the U.K. government, it can cause cancer when it is combined with other ingredients.
Calcium disodium EDTA is a preservative that some studies have suggested is linked to colon cancer, and a few animal studies were believed to show it could cause birth defects.