Health campaigners accuse watchdog of misleading the public over food additives

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The intervention follows research which showed that the chemicals can trigger unruly behaviour even among children with no history of hyperactivity.

The Food Standards Agency has played down the findings and is leaving manufacturers to decide whether to remove additives, warning only that parents of hyperactive children should check each food item.

In the wake of this decision, the Daily Mail last week launched a campaign calling for the chemicals to be banned outright.

Now, in in a letter to the chairman of the FSA, Dame Deirdre Hutton, campaigners have called for face-to-face talks on the issue.

"We believe that you are not only misrepresenting the science, but you are being unfair to parents by putting the burden to take action on this issue solely on them," says the letter from the Soil Association, Sustain, and the Hyperactive Children's Support Group.

"The evidence shows that many children could enjoy considerable benefits from improved food quality and reduced exposure to problematic industrial chemicals routinely used in their food.

Gordon Brown is also understood to be unhappy at the apparent complacency of the FSA and is planning to discuss with other EU countries the possibility of a complete ban on seven additives.

The damning research on hyperactivity was funded by the FSA and carried out by a team from the University of Southampton.

It tested the colourings tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129), and the preservative sodium benzoate (E211).