It’s a familiar scene: your children have been invited to a party and, on arrival, you are greeted with plates of sugared biscuits, bowls of lollies in a rainbow of colours and processed snacks high in salt, fat and MSG all on offer in abundance. This kind of colourful, chemical-laden fare has become de rigueur, often resulting in hyperactivity, mood swings and even reactions such as asthma attacks.

But kid’s parties need not be synonymous with all these things. There are many easy ways to prepare appealing, nutritious party food that doesn’t send kids into spasms of frenzied activity but still looks and tastes like party food.

So what exactly is it about children’s party food that can lead to less than ideal outcomes for children and parents alike? For many years, it was believed sugar was to blame, but research has proven it’s more the company sugar keeps that is the issue.

Additives

It’s a word that has been bandied about for some time and, with a growing movement towards real food — that is, food free from synthetic substances — it’s also loaded with controversy. So what are additives exactly? When our grandmothers would lovingly prepare a family meal from scratch, there were no convenience foods of the type that currently line our supermarket shelves. Rather than open a packet meal or a jar of sauce, grandma made meals with natural, fresh ingredients, enhanced with things like salt, spices, sugar or vinegar.

This kind of food preparation takes time and there’s the rub. For the past 50 years, as our lives have got busier, food manufacturers have been getting down to the business of offering the time-poor faster, more convenient ways to prepare food. These involve commercially manufactured sauces, meal sachets or on-the-go foods such as instant noodles and soups, which tend to be highly refined foods laden with colours, emulsifiers (for prevention of product separation), preservatives and flavour enhancers such as MSG.

At children’s parties, it’s not just the sweets containing sugar and colours that are the problem, but also the savoury food such as chips, rice crackers, processed meats and pastry products.

In Australia, there are more than 300 approved food additives yet, while most are considered safe, research suggests several are not, with some additives containing substances such as coal tar dyes and other petroleum derivatives used for industrial purposes.

According to Julie Eady, author of Additive Alert: Your Guide to Safer Shopping, 58 additives that are thought to cause health problems and have been phased out in other countries are still allowed in Australia. “There is a huge lack of understanding in Australia,” says Julie. “Consumer awareness is just the tip of the iceberg. We are a trusting population where our held truth is that the Australian government will protect us from harmful food, but people don’t understand the impacts additives have on children. Normal, happy kids can be affected with migraines, bad behaviour or asthma,” she adds.

According to Julie, the problem lies in Australia’s lack of food regulations. “We have a different system in place than in the UK,” says Julie. “They have a Food Standards Agency that acts independently while here FSANZ (Food Standards Australia New Zealand) is geared more to the manufacturers. There is no independence and it mostly serves the manufacturers’ profits.”

In the UK, where there has been a groundswell driving a shift away from the use of additives in food, more and more companies are meeting the demands of concerned consumers. Nestlé may have started the trend when in 2006 it removed artificial colours from Smarties after research linked E numbers to hyperactivity in children; in the US, studies linked them with cancer. For a while, the popular blue Smartie disappeared off the market but when manufacturers discovered the seaweed extract, spirulina, was a suitable food colour replacement, the blue Smartie was not only back in business but a little healthier.

Colours of the rainbow

When researchers at Southampton University in the UK published their findings in 2007 about six synthetic food dyes (Allura Red, Ponceau, Tartrazine, Sunset Yellow, Quinoline Yellow and Carmoisine) and their connections to hyperactivity in children, the public buzz around food dyes went into overdrive.

In the UK, German-owned supermarket giant Aldi removed all products with artificial food colours and the European Food Safety Authority updated its regulations so food manufacturers were required to include warnings on their labels if their products contained the offending colours. The following year, The Food Standards Agency proposed a voluntary phasing-out of the colours, now referred to as “The Southampton Six” by 2009 alongside a mounting public pressure on food manufacturers to make use of natural equivalents in their place.

It raises the question: “Why have we not done this in Australia?” According to FSANZ spokesperson Lydia Buchtmann, there is no need to include health warnings on our labels. “We’ve evaluated the Southampton study and concluded that, although it is interesting, there is not enough strong evidence for us to warrant making changes,” says Ms. Buchtmann.

“It was the parents, rather than the scientists that noticed the changes in children’s behaviour,” she adds. “Colours are all labelled either by name or number, are not in staple foods and are used in very small amounts.

“Of course, there are safety limits to food and we do carry out modelling to look at how many people may eat a particular food substance over a lifetime. We always recommend that parents give their children a nutritional diet and if their child does have any food intolerance to contact their doctor and remove colours from their diet,” says Ms. Buchtmann.

According to a press release issued by FSANZ in response to consumer concerns over food dyes, Australian children are consuming low levels of food colours and these are not being used above maximum permitted levels.

Food labels under review

In early 2010, the Council of Australian Governments and the Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council invited the public to share their concerns over food labelling. They received around 7000 submissions. The public, it seems, want clarity about food labels in a wide range of topics. These included: nutritional value, genetic modification, country of origin, animal welfare and additives.

Chaired by Former Health Minister Neal Blewett, the review is geared towards eliminating misleading claims on food labels with Blewett even hinting at the idea of establishing a national enforcement agency (as seen in the UK) rather than have breaches of conduct dealt with by individual state or territory departments.

Many anti-additive lobbyists are hoping also that the 5 per cent loophole will be addressed during the review. Under current legislation, manufacturers do not have to declare an ingredient that makes up less than 5 per cent of the product. The final report of the Review Panel will be provided to government in Dec 2010.

How to host an additive-free children’s party

For those keen to serve healthy, additive-free party fare for the first time, Julie Eady offers some sound advice. “First, don’t get freaked out,” she laughs. “It’s easy. We don’t need bright colours and rubbish food to put on a good party, but it also doesn’t mean it has to be all beans and carrot sticks, either.”

Julie recommends old-school treats such as honey joys (cornflakes with honey and butter), rice crackles, pikelets, sandwiches, homemade biscuits, plain MSG-free potato chips, fruit kebabs or chocolate-dipped fruit, crackers with cheese and homemade sausage rolls free of preservatives. For lolly bags, Maltesers, Milk Bottles, natural liquorice, white marshmallows and anything from the wide range of organic and natural confections (there are a few brands available in Australia and New Zealand) will keep tastebuds and health conscious parents happy.

“Make your own cake and get the kids involved by helping out with the decorating,” Julie advises. “With just a little bit of thought and planning, it can be hugely rewarding.”

For those needing further inspiration, however, there are also several books dedicated to the cause. Additive Free Kids’ Parties is one. Written by two Perth mothers passionate about additive-free living, the book was a product of their frustration at products, many of which were targeted at babies and children, that contained a high number of additives.

One of the authors, Tegan Benfell, began her additive-free journey following her daughter’s diagnosis with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Refusing medication for her daughter, Tegan eliminated all additives from her daughter’s diet and noticed a considerable difference in her behaviour within two weeks.

Her co-author, Rachel Davis Burrows, was inspired to write the book after struggling with the contradiction of following an additive-free diet at home but allowing her daughter to indulge in not-so-healthy fare at birthday parties.

“The book came about as a genuine desire to say to people: ‘It’s actually quite easy to be additive free,’” says Rachel. “The side effects are a calmer party rather than exposing kids to something that is potentially harmful.”

Outlining a typical children’s party, the author’s research reveals a staggeringly high number of additives that are likely to be consumed in one sitting. With more than 150 additive-free recipe ideas, the book not only contains not only a number of party food ideas and themes but dedicates a section to creatively decorating food and cakes with natural colours, an area where many well-intentioned parents may come unstuck.

For example, to make light-pink icing, warm a handful of strawberries, press and strain the juice into your icing sugar mix. For dark pink, use raspberries. Purple can be made with blueberries and baking powder, while turmeric creates yellow and you can’t go past good old-fashioned spinach (no, you can’t taste it) for a vibrant green.

With Australian and New Zealand rates of cancer, asthma, heart disease, obesity and behavioural disorders on the rise, it seems glaringly obvious we need to take stock of how we fuel our bodies, both young and old. Eating healthy, natural, unprocessed food is not rocket science but so many popular food products on our market are light years away from natural.

As Julie Eady states in her book, “Just because these additives don’t appear to cause an immediate effect in ourselves, it doesn’t mean there’s no effect. What effect is being had on the inside? What will the cumulative effect be on our bodies in 15–20 years time?”

New York artist Sally Davies’ recent Happy Meal Art Project is testament to the power of preservatives. When she bought a McDonald’s Happy Meal and photographed it every day for six months, her images revealing a product quite unchanged with not a visible sign of mold in sight. Definitely food for thought.

We may not get everything right in life but enjoying food in its most nutritious and simplest form is certainly one of the ways we can give our children the best start in life — kids’ parties included!

Mini Cookie Monsters

Although care must be taken to ensure no guests have a nut allergy, almond meal often makes for an excellent flour substitute as it is packed with goodness, including calcium, magnesium, iron and vitamins.

Ingredients

• 1 cup plain flour
• ¼ cup cocoa
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 100g softened butter
• 100g brown sugar
• ¼ cup almond meal
• ½ tsp natural vanilla essence
• 1 egg, beaten (preferably freerange and organic)
• 100g organic dark chocolate

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a large baking tray with butter.
2. Place all ingredients (except the chocolate) into a bowl or food processor and mix really well. The mixture should be thick and doughy.
3. Smash the chocolate into small shards using a rolling pin, then mix into the dough using your hands.
4. With moistened hands, pinch off small amounts of mixture and roll into balls about 3cm in diameter, then place on the baking tray (you can squash them down with a fork for a nice effect).
5. Cook in the centre of the oven for 12–15 minutes. Makes about 24 small biscuits.

Lime Slushies

Store bought slushies, almost universally fluorescent in colour, are about as far removed from anything natural as you can get. Try this chemical-free alternative, great for the young and the young at heart.

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh lime juice (5–6 limes)
• 1 cup castor sugar
• Small bag of ice

Method

1. Add the lime juice and sugar to a saucepan and gently heat until all the sugar has dissolved.
2. Remove from heat and allow to cool in the fridge.
3. When you are ready to serve the slushies, place the ice into a blender and blend to slushie consistency.
4. Distribute enough ice to fill each cup and pour one tablespoon of the syrup over each ice portion.
5. Serve with a straw or spoon.