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We’re proud to say that since 1st April 2008, all artificial colours and flavourings have been removed from all the food and soft drinks produced for us. And we’re the first major high street retailer to do it across all of our food and soft drinks.

Paul Willgoss, Technical Director of Food, says: “It’s taken three years to remove artificial colours and flavourings from over 900 products.  We’ve come up against some real challenges along the way, particularly when removing artificial colours.  It’s only once you start to remove colourings, you realise how much we eat with our eyes – people expect things to look a certain way. With our Turkish Delight, for example, it was a bit of a struggle to find a natural colour to replace its vibrant pink filling. We now use fruit and vegetable extracts.”

You’ll be reassured to know that this new initiative covers all additives particularly associated with concerns about food intolerance and children’s diets, including artificial colours such as Ponceau 4R (E124), Sunset Yellow (E110), Carmosine (E122) and Quinoline Yellow (E104).  In response to customer concerns about additives, we already refuse to use around half of those permitted by the EU, and banned Monosodium Glutamate and Tartrazine (E102) many years ago.

This is another industry first in a long list of groundbreaking moves that includes leading the way on salt reduction (ahead of government targets), using only free-range eggs and removing Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils across all our food.

At M&S, we’re unique in being the UK’s only 100% own brand food retailer. That means we can guarantee our standards across every single food and soft drink product we sell, so you can enjoy a great choice and fantastic flavour!

If you require further information you can e-mail nutrition@marks-and-spencer.com, or contact Customer Services on 0845 302 1234.