Summers typically echo with my children’s demands for slushies, those vibrant, sugar-filled frozen beverages. However, you’re now implying that these seemingly harmless treats aren’t as carefree as they appear?
Fearfully, yes. This week, the Food Safety Authority Ireland cautioned parents against allowing their young children to over-consume slush-ice beverages containing glycerol, because of the potential risks of headaches, nausea and vomiting.
Interestingly, my nine-year-old once tried to convince me that the strawberry variant was part of his daily fruit requirement.
According to the FSAI, glycerol is an authorised additive in the EU that helps to lower a drink’s sugar content. It renders a slushy characteristic to ice drinks. While it’s generally non-toxic, questions have been raised about its potential effects on children under ten who take it in large amounts.
So, what sort of impact are we discussing here: Hyperactivity? Irritability?
Overindulgence in glycerol-laced slush-ice drinks could lead to headaches, nausea and vomiting in young children. Rarely, but possibly, it could cause serious symptoms like shock, hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) and fainting, avers the FSAI.
Can you expand on glycerol?
It prevents the liquid from transforming into solid ice, thus sustaining the slush features. In the European Union, glycerol, occasionally denoted as E 422, is approved as a food additive. It’s allowed to be used “quantum satis” in soft drinks, implying that no maximum limit is prescribed and substances should be utilised as per “good manufacturing practice”, but only at the necessary level to achieve the intended technology.
Are there any guidelines on the allowed glycerol content in these beverages?
The FSAI has created optional instructions for the industry that entail using the smallest amount of glycerol viable when producing slush ice drinks, displaying warnings related to age at points-of-sale, and prohibiting the provision of free refills of such drinks to younger children.
So, what’s the maximum allowable amount, should children wish to guzzle these drinks?
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) recommends that children under the age of five refrain from drinking slush-ice beverages that contain glycerol due to its effects related to body weight. Meanwhile, children between five and ten should restrict their consumption to a maximum of one such drink per day. Although it would simplify matters to entirely prohibit these drinks, the current guidance is to consume them sparingly as a treat. Any necessary modifications to rules regarding food additives, as highlighted by the FSAI, would need to be implemented at a European level.