Additives in soft drinks

“Belvoir fruit farms’ drinks do not contain any added colours, flavours, artificial sweeteners or preservatives (or any ‘natural’ flavours either).”

There is growing evidence that some kinds of additives in soft drinks can seriously harm children’s health. Research published in May 2007 by the University of Southampton has again linked certain colours used in some soft drinks to poor concentration and hyperactivity in children. The additives tested included tartrazine (E102), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129). The Food Standards Agency repeated this study in September 2007, also including Sodium Benzoate (E211) in the mix and found similar results – drinking products containing these additives increases hyperactivity and decreases a child’s attention span.

Belvoir products have never contained any artificial colours. We do not use any artificial preservatives – including sodium benzoate. The only “E numbers” we use are citric acid and sodium citrate (which regulate the acidity in our drinks and are chemically identical to the acid naturally found in limes and lemons) and carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide is used to make our presses fizzy. There have never been any health risks associated with any of these ingredients in food or drink. We don’t need to use colours, because we use loads of high quality juice; we don’t need to use preservatives as we gently pasteurise our drinks and ask our customers to keep them in the fridge once they’re opened – and they’re so delicious they rarely stay open for long!