Food additives and E numbers

Many ingredients lists on food packets include short codes such as E330. Those codes are E numbers, and each one stands for a food additive. Some labels give the additive's name instead.

What counts as an additive

These notes follow the Food Standards Agency's guidance, which covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Food Standards Agency describes food additives as ingredients that makers add to foods to carry out particular functions.

The law gives a fuller definition, in the assimilated Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008. An additive is a substance people do not normally eat as a food in itself. Makers add it on purpose, for a technical reason, at some stage from making the food to packing and storing it.

The same law lists some things that count as foods instead. Sugars used to sweeten, edible gelatin, milk protein, gluten and inulin are among them.

The Agency says many additives are chemicals that exist in nature, such as ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and citric acid. It says others are man-made, and that both kinds go through the same safety evaluations.

What an E number tells you

The Food Standards Agency keeps a list of approved additives and their E numbers. It groups them by what they do. The groups are colours, preservatives, antioxidants, sweeteners, the emulsifiers, stabilisers, thickeners and gelling agents, and a final group of others.

Here are a few entries from that list:

The Agency says most additives are only allowed in certain foods, up to set limits. So it asks readers to use the list alongside the law.

Some additives are allowed "quantum satis". The Agency explains that this means the law sets no maximum number. Makers must still use no more than the purpose needs, follow good manufacturing practice and avoid misleading the shopper.

How an additive is approved

Under Article 6 of the additives regulation, an additive may be authorised only when it meets three conditions:

Article 6 also asks that an additive brings an advantage to the consumer. Keeping the food's nutritional quality is one. Helping the food keep longer or stay stable is another.

The Food Standards Agency lists food additives among the regulated products that need market authorisation before anyone can sell them in Great Britain.

The Agency and Food Standards Scotland assess each application for England, Wales and Scotland. The Agency then makes a recommendation to ministers, and the public can comment in a consultation first. Ministers decide whether to authorise the additive. If they agree, the relevant register is updated to show it.

The Agency says it investigates any information that casts reasonable doubt on the safety of an additive.

Northern Ireland follows the EU version of the regulation. The Agency gives one example of where the two differ. Since 7 August 2022, makers in Northern Ireland may no longer use titanium dioxide (E171) in food.

How additives appear in the ingredients list

The government's food labelling guidance says a product with two or more ingredients must list them all. That includes water and additives. The business selling it must list them in order of weight, with the main ingredient first.

The food information law sets how the list names many additives. The label gives the category first, then the additive's own name or its E number. So one label might say "preservative (E211)" where another says "preservative (sodium benzoate)".

The law sets out 24 categories. Acid, antioxidant, colour, emulsifier, flavour enhancer, preservative, raising agent, stabiliser, sweetener and thickener are among them. When an additive does more than one thing, the label names the category for its main purpose in that food.

For some food sold loose or packed in the shop, the labelling guidance says the seller may also need to show any additive they have added.

Sulphur dioxide and sulphites are on the list of allergens. The guidance says sellers must highlight them on the label, and list them in the ingredients, at levels above 10mg per kilogram or per litre. Sulphur dioxide is E220 on the Agency's list.

Warnings on the label

The additives regulation names six food colours. Food containing any of them must carry extra wording on the label. The six are:

The label gives the name or E number of the colour, then the words "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children".

The rule leaves out drinks with more than 1.2% alcohol by volume. It also leaves out colours used for health marking on meat, or for stamping and decorating eggshells.

The Food Standards Agency says it funded research into possible links between food colours and hyperactivity in children. It says it encourages makers to find alternatives to these six colours. Some makers and retailers have already removed them.

The government's labelling guidance lists other warnings a business must show when its food contains certain additives. It gives the wording to use:

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