Parents were warned to limit their children’s consumption of soft drinks amid fears over the safety of a commonly-used preservative.
Research shows that E211 — found in drinks sold by leading cola makers — can switch off vital parts of DNA, causing serious damage to cells.
Laboratory tests suggest this could even result in degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and cirrhosis of the liver.
However, the Food Standards Agency and drinks manufacturers insisted that the additive had been rigorously assessed before being approved for use.
The research into E211 — or sodium benzoate — was carried out by Peter Piper, a molecular biology expert at Sheffield University. He found that it could damage an important area of DNA called mitochondria.
“These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it, they knock it out altogether,” he told a Sunday newspaper.
“The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously,” he said. “And there is a whole array of diseases now being tied to damage-to this DNA — Parkinson’s and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing.”
Sodium benzoate has been used as a preservative for decades by the £74billion global carbonated drinks industry. It is used to kill yeast, bacteria, and fungi in soft drinks, jam, fruit juice and salad dressing. When mixed with vitamin C it forms benzene, a carcinogenic substance.
It is found naturally in cranberries, prunes, greengages, cinnamon, ripe cloves and apples.
Professor Piper claimed that tests on sodium benzoate carried out by the European Union and the US Food and Drug Administration were too old to be reliable.
“By the criteria of modern safety testing, the safety tests were inadequate,” he said. “Like all things, safety testing moves forward and you can conduct a much more rigorous safety test than you could 50 years ago.
“We are feeding vast amounts of them to children inadvertently. Is this a completely safe process? “My concern is for children who are drinking large amounts.’ His call for further tests was endorsed by Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat chairman of Parliament’s all-party environment group.
The MP said: “Professor Piper has studied this for some years so we should be taking his concerns seriously.
“I will be writing to the Food Standards Agency to ask them to carry out further investigation and I would advise parents to make sure there is no over-exposure to these drinks for their children.”
Richard Laming, of the British Soft Drinks Association, said: “All ingredients used by the soft drinks industry are considered as safe to use by the Food Standards Agency.
