On the shelves of French supermarkets, American products are on sale even though they are banned in Europe, due to the danger they represent for health.
Confectionery, sodas, sauces, many American products are present in French supermarkets. They have found a great place there and are experiencing real success. However, not all of them are authorized for sale. Requested by the French, who spot them on social networks or in American television programs, they are offered for purchase illegally in supermarkets as well as in grocery stores. In recent years, customs have stepped up checks to try to limit their imports.
The products in question are notably considered dangerous for health, as jointly revealed France Inter And Marianne. These products are full of additives that are very harmful to health, whether titanium dioxide, aluminum sulfate, erythrosine (E127) or other industrial dyes, often overdosed.
For example, titanium dioxide was banned in France in 2020 and is dangerous for health, as Éric Houdeau, researcher at the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, explains: “This What was discovered was that it had the ability to cause the appearance of precancerous lesions in the colon in animals, after 100 days of exposure. Aluminum sulfate is, for its part, restricted to use only for candied cherries and egg whites. This agent can reach the brain as well as the placenta.
A manager of a Parisian store told France Inter how he obtains such products: “When we manage to find them at one of our importers, we put a few boxes in them, to please our customers. They can only find them there: we hide from the internet and networks, because we know it’s forbidden.” One of the customs solutions would be to pass the goods through the port of Rotterdam, which is less supervised than that of Le Havre or Marseille.
Around sixty references would be affected today. These include M&M’s with peanut butter, Heinz tomato sauce with pickle, “Legacy” pink Sprite, Fanta with strawberry or peach flavor and even Lucky Charm cereals. These are therefore products with uncommon flavors that young people love.
However, in peanut butter flavored M&M’s, for example, the concentration of industrial coloring exceeds eight times the maximum dose authorized in Europe. As the weekly explains Mariannethis can in particular “cause attention problems or hyperactivity in children”.