If you walk into a supermarket, convenience store, or other retailer anywhere in America and notice that they have Mountain Dew and Sunny Delight in their refrigerators, and Swedish Fish, Jolly Ranchers, and Twizzlers for sale in the candy aisle, you wouldn’t think anything about it. But if you wandered into a shop in England and saw those same drinks and candies, then there’s a good chance that retailer is about to get a visit from the Trading Standards office.
Trading Standards, the local authorities that enforce consumer-protection regulations, have seized thousands of dollars worth of common American candies and sodas, because they contain ingredients that have been banned in the United Kingdom. That’s right: in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, it’s illegal for shops to sell Mountain Dew, Jolly Ranchers, Twizzlers, Lemonheads, and some other candies that are familiar to Americans.
According to the BBC, trading standards officers confiscated over £8,000 ($10,000) worth of illegal candies from almost two dozen different candy shops in Burton-on-Trent and Staffordshire. A spokesperson for Trading Standards said that last year, £25 million ($31 million) worth of American candies —many of them that cannot be sold in the UK —were imported into the island nation. (Spokespeople from the brands that manufacture those candies for sale in the U.S. told the news outlet that the products were legal to make and sell within the United States, but any products that were sold in the UK were illegally imported and not being sold by the brands themselves.)
"People are selling these products not realizing they have banned ingredients in them," Stephanie Young, a trading standards team leader in Staffordshire, told the BBC.
The Scotsman reports, some of the additives and compounds found in those candies include brominated vegetable oil, mineral oil, and erythrosine, which is also known as Red No. 3. Again, although they are legal in the American market, they cannot be used in candies or other foods in the United Kingdom. (Interestingly, Red No 3, also called E127, is approved for use in co*cktail cherries and candied cherries, but can’t be used in any other food and beverages in the UK.)
“The UK prides itself on high food standards, but this very much relies on Trading Standards ensuring that what is on sale complies with the law,” John Herriman, the chief executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, told the Scotsman. “It’s therefore extremely worrying to learn that as we approach Christmas, confectionary that we know will appeal to children is on sale in UK high streets and that it could be linked to hyperactivity in kids, and even cancer.”
This isn’t the first time that legal-in-America products have caused issues in the United Kingdom. In 2021, the Get Baked bakery in Leeds, England, was reported to Trading Standards for using illegal sprinkles that had been imported from the U.S. on some of its cakes and cookies. The problem —other than a customer who couldn’t mind their own business —was that the sprinkles contained Red No. 3.
"[The Trading Standards inspector] said they'd had reports of us using illegal sprinkles, and I actually laughed by mistake, then realized he was being serious," Get Baked owner Rich Myers told the BBC at the time. "To whoever reported us to Trading Standards, all I have to say is: 'Dear Lord, what a sad little life Jane'."
The Trading Standards report meant that Get Baked had to make some of its most popular products without sprinkles. "It is HIGHLY unlikely that we will find any legal sprinkles that we will use as a replacement,” Myers wrote on Facebook. “British sprinkles just aren't the same, they're totally [crap] and I hate them. I am extremely passionate about sprinkles."
So if you’re craving a Mountain Dew or a package of Jolly Ranchers on your next trip to London, you’re just going to have to hang tight until you get back in the good ol’ USA.
