Tests find 'illegal' curry sales

Officials have threatened legal action if standards are not improved

More than a quarter of takeaway curries tested in West Yorkshire contained illegal levels of potentially harmful chemicals, a study has shown.

The survey of 66 chicken tikka masala meals found that 18 of them (27%) used illegally high levels of colouring.

Nearly all of the takeaways sampled by West Yorkshire Trading Standards contained a cocktail of E numbers.

The Food Standards Agency has called for the additives to be phased out because of their effects on children.

An earlier study by researchers at the University of Southampton has shown evidence of increased levels of hyperactivity in young children consuming mixtures of some artificial food colours and the preservative sodium benzoate.

The survey was conducted over the last 12 months in all five districts of West Yorkshire -Leeds, Bradford, Kirklees, Calderdale and Wakefield.

The food industry has generally taken great strides to remove them but the message does not appear to have been heeded by the takeaway curry trade Graham Hebblethwaite, West Yorks chief trading standards officer

Most of the food sampled in the study contained tartrazine (E102), sunset yellow (E110), ponceau 4R (E124), carmoisine (E122) and allura red (E129).

Graham Hebblethwaite, West Yorkshire's chief trading standards officer, said: "The Food Standards Agency is asking food and drink manufacturers to phase out the use of these artificial colours.

"The food industry has generally taken great strides to remove them but the message does not appear to have been heeded by the takeaway curry trade."

The law currently allows curry sauces to contain up to 500mg/kg of artificial colour but one sample was found to contain five times this level.

Sweets are allowed to contain up to 300mg/kg of colour but the study showed the worst curry contained the equivalent amount of colour as 3.6kg (8lb) of brightly coloured sweets.

None of the takeaways labelled colours in their curries and by law they are not required to.

Councillor Andrew Carter, of the Trading Standards Committee, said: "The law currently limits the use of these colours for health reasons. Using too much artificial colour is illegal.

"Those found to have been using too much colour will be revisited and if they haven't changed their ways they could be prosecuted."