Devon County Council has become the latest authority to warn about the safety of American snacks, sweets and fizzy drinks.

Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service, which covers Devon, Plymouth, Somerset, and Torbay, said imported sweets not approved for sale are increasingly being seen in shops across the region.

Officers have carried out unannounced inspections of stores looking for non-compliant sweets, cereals, bakery goods, snacks and canned/carbonated drinks. They identified and removed products containing unauthorized additives or with non-compliant labeling from the market. Products, often referred to as grey market goods, are manufactured for non-UK markets and do not comply with UK food standards.

Look out for these additives
There are five additives that consumers should look out for which are legal in the U.S. but are not permitted in the UK.

They are brominated vegetable oil (BVO); E127, Erythrosine (also known as Red 3 which is allowed in cocktail cherries, but not sweets); mineral oil/white mineral oil; bleached flour, and zinc aspartate.

Julie Richardson, lead food officer for Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service, said: “Increasingly we are seeing products banned in the UK on sale. If you see confectionery which you are unfamiliar with it may be imported so we advise you to read the label first to see if it contains one of the additives listed. We ask retailers to urgently remove items from sale that contain unauthorized ingredients.”

Additives are only a...