Sprinkles: Leeds Get Baked bakery bins best-seller in topping row

Rich Myers said he would have to stop selling his "best-selling" raspberry glazed donut cookies

A bakery has had to stop producing its bestselling biscuit after officials found the treats were topped with illegal sprinkles.

Get Baked in Leeds withdrew its raspberry glazed donut cookies, which contained a banned food colouring.

Owner Rich Myers branded the decision "ridiculous" and said alternative sprinkles on the market were "rubbish".

West Yorkshire Trading Standards said the imported decoration had fallen foul of UK regulations.

Mr Myers said: "I know it sounds like a small thing but it is a big deal for my business - we used them a lot.

"Our best-selling cookie, we're not going to be able to sell them any more. For a small independent business that only has a small menu, it's a problem."

• More stories from across Yorkshire

Trading Standards said the E127 food colouring, also know as Erythrosine, is only approved for use in the UK and EU in cocktail cherries and candied cherries.

The ingredient has been linked to problems with hyperactivity and behavioural issues in children and a US study suggested an increased risk of thyroid tumours when tested on male rats.

"[The inspector] said they'd had reports of us using illegal sprinkles and I actually laughed by mistake, then realised he was being serious," Mr Myers said.

"To whoever reported us to Trading Standards, all I have to say is: 'Dear Lord, what a sad little life Jane'."

He said he sourced the US-made cake toppers from a UK-based wholesaler, adding that other products on the market were not as good.

"British sprinkles are rubbish," he said.

"They run and aren't bake-stable. The colours aren't vibrant and they just don't look very good."

The bakery uses the decorations on a number of products

Mr Myers' plight was recognised by two former Great British Bake Off contestants, who sympathised with his desire to obtain suitable ingredients.

Edd Kimber, 2010 winner, agreed supermarket sprinkles were "not as good".

"It is what he's designing his product around, so I feel his pain," he added.

Fellow contestant Hermine Dossou, who was a semi-finalist in the 2020 show, called on sprinkle makers in the UK to "step up their game".

"I get where Trading Standards is coming from, but it comes back to the everything in moderation argument," she said.

A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Trading Standards said: "We can confirm that we have advised the business concerned the use of E127 is not permitted in this type of confectionery item.

"We stand by this advice and would urge all food business operators, when seeking to use imported foods containing additives, to check that they are permitted for use in the UK."