Mandy Sacher has warned parents that the nostalgic treat of white bread with butter and rainbow hundreds and thousands is made with “harmful” artificial colors.
“The truth is, many of the traditional hundreds and thousands we grew up with that can still be found on supermarket shelves contain artificial colors like Amaranth (123) and Tartrazine (102) – dyes that have been banned in the United States and carry warnings in Europe for their potential health risks,” Sacher wrote in an opinion piece for Kidspot.
Sacher continues by asserting that amaranth (123) is still used to color hundreds of thousands of people in Australia despite being prohibited in the US because of its “links to cancer and behavioral issues.”
According to the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) website, EFSA and JECFA have evaluated more recent research and determined that amaranth is not carcinogenic after the US ended the color’s provisional classification for use in food in 1977.
Sacher proposes using unsalted butter instead of margarine, substituting white bread for sourdough or wholemeal, and using sprinkles without artificial coloring instead of completely banning fairy bread.
