The Hidden Link Consumer champion - and proud mum - Julie Eady draws our attention to the often hidden truth about food additives.

Story by Margaret Evans

A discussion with Perth housewife and mother Julie Eady suggests an uncanny resemblance to US consumer advocate Ralph Nader - at least before he became the serial pest of American presidential politics.

Where the US consumer advocate once had multinational conglomerates quaking in their boots with his dogged persistence, the deceptively demure Mrs Eady has Australia's food labelling laws in her sights. And she's not going to rest until they're a huge improvement on what we apparently have operating on our behalf today. The phrase complacently repeated to her over and over, "If it's approved, it's safe" has become her catchcry because she believes - and her extensive research backs her up - that it often masks the truth and she looks to a time soon when it actually rings true.

Julie Eady's particular beef ("without sulphites please") is additives in our foods - everything from artificial colours and flavours to "hidden" antioxidants, carcinogenic substances, MSG, aspartame, sulphites, salt. Even natural additives, in which we almost implicitly place our faith these days, come under her critical gaze.

Driven, and it's the only right word for her approach, by the desire to provide better health choices for her family - she has two young children aged five and six months - Julie has compiled her copious notes from time-consuming supermarket shopping into a self published paperback book called Additive Alert. The slim volume fits easily into a shopping bag (she admits to being a crusader on behalf of other mothers, mostly) yet manages to pack in a wealth of detail that is certain to have you changing your shopping habits, probably hastily. I know I have - and I'm not a big fan of processed foods in the first place - but convenience has to win out sometimes. And that's always where the manufacturers have us over a barrel. In fact, the most telling impression that leaps from this book is the absolute necessity of eating a diet of natural, unprocessed, unrefined, preferably organic, wholefoods. Nothing else comes close.

After reading Additive Alert, I came away with a clear sense of something very unsettling about our food labelling practices in Australia - both in the products that are finding their way into our processed foods and the attitude of the national authorities who are meant to be guardians of our welfare as consumers.

Of her many phone calls and emails to Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), the body with responsibility for maintaining a safe food supply to consumers here and across the Tasman, Julie says, "the brush off was incredible". "They really acted as if they were more of an industry help service than a consumer help service. And even though some of the staff were quite well meaning, they simply didn't have the information available"

One short, but damning, chapter in her book detailing parts of conversations with FSANZ representatives makes her point for her. The mantra, "If it's approved, it's safe" and, elsewhere, the reassurance that, "just because something causes cancer in rats and mice doesn't mean it will cause cancer in humans", are worrying to read in an era when we demand greater public accountability from our bureaucracies.

Having worked in government departments herself, ("I also have a background in marketing and PR but I don't think I'll be working for any food companies soon."), Julie has some sense of how the process works and, she believes, the confidence to follow things through where others would be thwarted by the bland indifference.

The lack of any mechanism for reporting or lodging concerns about food additives and the failure to keep even a summary of the latest research findings are other areas of concern about the FSANZ's approach. In contrast, the US Food and Drug Administration keeps detailed records pointing to, for instance, the grave concern about use of the sweetener, aspartame. First approved for use in 1981, the records show aspartame accounts for over 75 per cent of adverse reactions reported to the FDA. Yet it's still widely used in the US, as in Australia, and if you think you're avoiding it by taking sugar in your coffee or even going without any sweetening, think again. Aspartame has found its way into yoghurts, desserts, juices, instant coffee, vitamins, even rice crackers and sausages! Insidious is a word that comes to mind.

"I found through talking to mothers especially - my thrust is very much on mothers at the moment because that's my demographic - many have a definite belief their children react badly not just to colours (which everyone is aware of) but to preservatives and antioxidants," says Julie. "A lot of people have worked this out for themselves, but there is no mechanism for reporting any complaints to the FSA - it simply doesn't exist.

"In Australia, there's a body where you can report the adverse effects of veterinary chemicals, but not food for humans."

What angers, and thus drives, Julie Eady most, is the realisation that additives banned in other countries because they are "particularly nasty and have strong links to cancer in rats and mice and cats and dogs" are still appearing in Australian foods.

Antioxidants figure prominently in this list, yet are almost always hidden because of "a five per cent loophole" in our recently updated food labelling laws. (More on this later). Antioxidants are used widely in processed foods that contain oil or fat and their function is to prevent rancidity. Julie's detailed research includes lists of additives by number and her book states:

"Antioxidants 310-312 and 319-321 are extremely questionable and should be avoided wherever possible." Documented adverse reactions include links to cancer, asthma, liver damage, skin irritations, birth defects, delirium... the list goes on. The additive 320, butylated hydroxyanisole, for instance, was banned in Japan as long ago as 1958! And Japan doesn't figure highly among countries which have taken the lead in protecting their citizens' health from harmful foods. The US, the UK, France, Austria, Germany and the Scandinavian countries are much more proactive in this area.

The contrast with our approach couldn't be more marked, Julie believes. "I always assumed Australia would be very stringent and right up there as a world leader in regulating strongly on behalf of the consumer and it seems it's just not that way at all. Other countries regulate much more stringently in terms of food." On the matter of the evocatively named butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), in Australia it appears in many brands of peanut butter and even crops up in icecream cones. And it just so happens our children have a love affair with both. Artificial colours are another major concern and Julie instantly proffers the example of the colour 155 Brown HT which her book describes as a "suspected carcinogen and mutagen. Linked to asthma, skin irritation. Banned in US, Denmark, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Norway, Belgium". But on our shelves here in Australia. Maybe those chocolate biscuits you fancy do more than stack on the pounds!

So why, when our food labelling regulations were changed amid much fanfare at the end of last year to provide the consumer with more information upon which to make their purchasing decisions, do we still have hidden ingredients?

It seems that while nutrient content is much more visible, something Julie welcomes as a "very positive change", many additives have escaped being listed because of a small but critical hole in the legislation - "the five per cent loophole". Manufacturers are not required to list any product that is present in an ingredient that comprises five per cent or less of the product. And, says Julie, antioxidants in vegetable oil are the most common example of this gap in action.

"When they had to change their labels anyway, why they bothered to go from ten per cent (which existed until December 2002) to five per cent is just incredible. And the only reason that could happen is industry lobbying against it. "The five per cent loophole is important because it limits consumers' rights and abilities to choose with confidence."

Margarine is one substance that warrants a closer look in this context. As Julie Eady writes: "Manufacturers can list compound ingredients such as margarine and breadcrumbs and not list what is in those ingredients if they make up less than five per cent of the final product." And while the popular myth is that margarine is somehow better for us than fatty old butter, aware nutritionists have been telling us for years this just isn't so. In contrast to natural butter, margarine is a hydrogenated fat and thus high in trans fatty acids. These are dangerous substances linked to higher cholesterol levels and the formation of carcinogenic substances. In many parts of Europe, trans fats are severely restricted and, Julie Eady tells us, limited to no more than 0.1 percent in food products. In Australia, it's only mandatory for the label to declare the total amount of fat and to provide a breakdown of the amount of saturated fat. And, of course, there's the question of colours, preservatives and antioxidants, none of which is likely to constitute more than five per cent of your tub of margarine. Butter is fatty, of course, but it has no additives or trans fats. Make your own choice.

Would low fat be the way to go then? If you mean natural and unprocessed, undoubtedly yes as the basis of a good diet. But processed foods that promote themselves as low fat could be something else again. On this, as with many other food choices as we try to do the best by our own and our family's health, Additive Alert has some very useful advice.

Julie Eady's vision is to provide us with the information we need to make confident and informed choices. Maybe then, she says, we can avoid such aberrations as the packet of rice crackers in the kindy fruit bowl, "because they're healthy". And she knows her message is already making a difference because more mothers are demanding its removal and she's no longer the lone voice.

Additive Alert - Your Guide to Safer Shopping By Julie Eady

Available through www.additivealert.com.au