GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has said it aims to meet guidelines set by the UK’s food safety body by removing a colouring linked to hyperactivity in children from its flagship Lucozade Energy drink.

The colouring – sunset yellow – is one of six linked to hyperactivity in children in a study commissioned by the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) and published in 2007. The FSA subsequently called for the colourings to be removed from food and drink.

GSK told just-drinks today (3 March) that it has been working to reformulate Lucozade Energy Original “for some time”, but that it had not yet been successful in removing sunset yellow.

“The issue of food colourants rose to the top of the agenda following the publication of the Southampton Study in 2007, which reported that combining certain food additives with the preservative sodium benzoate may increase hyperactivity in some children, and since then we have been exploring alternatives,” the firm said.

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