Harmful substance 'may be found in fruit drinks'

A team at the University of Copenhagen have discovered a harmful chemical in fruits juices.

Some fruit juices may have unsafe levels of antimony

Scientists are warning that some fruit juices could contain a harmful chemical linked to cancer.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen found that some bottles of fruit juice and squash contain up to 2.5 times more antimony than is deemed "safe" in tap water.

Researcher Claus Hansen said: "The antimony concentrations in the products tested exceed the limit in EU drinking water but no antimony limits exist for foodstuffs so no legislation has been broken.

"However, we cannot be sure that the antimony levels found are harmless."

The Royal Society of Chemistry, which published the research, added that as most fruit squashes are aimed at children, they are more at risk from the substance.

It has been suggested that the substance is finding its way into the drinks from the plastic bottles they are contained in, with citric acid in the drinks speeding up the leaching process.

Posted by Lauren Cook