They are exotic, colorful… but not necessarily authorized. We have already seen them on the shelves of the supermarket: M&M’s with peanut butter, Heinz tomato sauces with pickles, Fanta sodas with strawberry flavor… These American products are available for sale in France , even though they are banned in the European Union, reveals France Inter(New window), Thursday October 16, in partnership with the weekly Marianne .
These sweets, cereals, sodas, which children and teenagers are particularly fond of, are dangerous for health. They are full of extremely harmful food additives such as titanium dioxide (E171) or aluminum sulfate (E520).
Customs increase checks
Titanium dioxide caused “the appearance of precancerous lesions in the colon in animals after 100 days of exposure,” explains Eric Houdeau, a researcher at the National Institute for Agricultural, Food and Environmental Research (INRAE) who has studied titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide was banned in France in 2020 and in Europe in 2022 thanks to his research on animals.
These products are sold at the checkout counters of American supermarkets. In France, consumers have spotted them through social networks and television series. To meet customer demand, they are sold illegally in grocery stores, supermarkets or online stores.
In an attempt to limit these illegal imports into France, customs have increased their checks over the past three years. More than 72 tonnes of goods have already been seized, a tiny quantity compared to the estimated quantity of products circulating in France. According to information from France Inter, around sixty references are currently on sale in France.As traders know that customs are increasing checks in the ports of Le Havre and Marseille, they now bring their goods in through the port of Rotterdam.
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