Food additive directory
Source-cited explainers for E-number food additives — what each one is, who it might affect, and why. Every entry is re-checked against your own condition and diet profile in the app, not just given one generic score.
Acesulfame K
Acesulfame K (E950) is a synthetic sweetener roughly 200 times sweeter than sugar, used in soft drinks, chewing gum and desserts — usually blended with another sweetener to mask its aftertaste. It is not metabolised and contributes no calories.
Allura Red AC
Allura Red AC (E129) is a synthetic red azo dye used in sweets, drinks, and desserts. It is one of the six "Southampton" colours the EU requires to carry a warning about possible effects on children’s activity and attention.
Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C)
Ascorbic acid (E300) is vitamin C, added to foods as an antioxidant to prevent browning and preserve colour and nutrients. It is an essential nutrient with a very favourable safety profile and is one of the most benign food additives.
Aspartame
Aspartame (E951) is a low-calorie artificial sweetener about 200× sweeter than sugar, used in diet drinks and sugar-free products. It contains phenylalanine, so it must be avoided by people with phenylketonuria (PKU); in 2023 IARC classified it as "possibly carcinogenic" while EFSA kept its acceptable daily intake unchanged.
Brilliant Blue FCF
Brilliant Blue FCF (E133) is a synthetic blue dye used in sweets, ice cream and drinks. Unlike the six "Southampton" colours it carries no mandatory children's warning, and EFSA set an acceptable daily intake of 6 mg per kg of body weight when it re-evaluated the colour in 2010.
Citric acid
Citric acid (E330) is a mild acid found naturally in citrus fruit and produced industrially by fermentation, used as an acidity regulator and antioxidant in a huge range of foods and drinks. EFSA considers it safe with no numeric intake limit; it is one of the most benign common additives.
Curcumin
Curcumin (E100) is the yellow-orange colour extracted from turmeric root, used in mustards, cheeses, drinks and baked goods. It is one of the few plant-derived colours in common industrial use, and EFSA set an acceptable daily intake of 3 mg per kg of body weight for it.
Disodium 5-ribonucleotides
Disodium 5-ribonucleotides (E635) is a roughly equal blend of disodium guanylate (E627) and disodium inosinate (E631), used with MSG to boost savoury flavour. Because it contains inosinate, the same question applies: the source may be fermentation or fish, and the label will not say.
Disodium guanylate
Disodium guanylate (E627) is a flavour enhancer used alongside MSG, where the pair together taste far stronger than either alone. It is usually made by fermenting plant starch, but it can also be derived from fish or meat — which is why its vegan status is not automatic.
Disodium inosinate
Disodium inosinate (E631) is a flavour enhancer used with MSG in crisps, instant noodles and stock cubes. It is the ribonucleotide most often made from fish or meat rather than by fermentation, and EU labels are not required to say which — the single most common reason vegans query an E-number.
Malic acid
Malic acid (E296) is the sharp-tasting acid that occurs naturally in apples, used industrially to regulate acidity and sharpen flavour in sweets, drinks and fruit products. EFSA classes it as safe and set no numerical acceptable daily intake for it.
Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
Monosodium glutamate (E621) is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, used as a savoury ("umami") flavour enhancer in snacks, sauces, and ready meals. EFSA considers it safe at normal intakes; reports of "MSG symptom complex" have not been confirmed in controlled studies.
Ponceau 4R
Ponceau 4R (E124) is a synthetic red azo dye used in sweets, desserts and soft drinks. Despite being sold as "Cochineal Red A" it has nothing to do with cochineal insects. It is one of the six colours the EU requires to carry a children's activity-and-attention warning.
Sodium ascorbate
Sodium ascorbate (E301) is a salt of vitamin C used as an antioxidant to stop fats and colours going off — very often in cured meat, where it also limits the formation of nitrosamines. EFSA classes the ascorbates as safe with no numerical acceptable daily intake.
Sodium benzoate
Sodium benzoate (E211) is a preservative used in acidic foods and soft drinks to stop mould and yeast. EFSA considers it safe at permitted levels; in acidic drinks that also contain vitamin C it can form trace benzene, which manufacturers control by reformulation.
Sodium nitrite
Sodium nitrite (E250) is a curing salt used in bacon, ham, and cured meats to fix colour and prevent botulism. Under cooking and digestion it can form nitrosamines, some of which are carcinogenic, and the WHO/IARC classifies processed meat as carcinogenic to humans.
Sorbitol
Sorbitol (E420) is a sugar alcohol used to sweeten sugar-free gum, sweets and diabetic products. Because it is poorly absorbed it is high-FODMAP and a common trigger for IBS symptoms, and EU labels must warn that excessive consumption may have a laxative effect.
Sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide (E220) and sulfites are preservatives used in dried fruit, wine, and processed potato products to prevent browning and microbial growth. Sulfites are a recognised allergen that must be labelled in the EU above 10 mg/kg, and they can trigger asthma-like reactions in sensitive people.
Sunset Yellow FCF
Sunset Yellow FCF (E110) is a synthetic orange-yellow azo dye used in soft drinks, sweets, and snacks. Like tartrazine, it is one of six colours the EU requires to carry a children’s activity-and-attention warning, and it can trigger reactions in aspirin-sensitive individuals.
Tartrazine
Tartrazine (E102) is a synthetic lemon-yellow azo dye used to colour soft drinks, sweets, and sauces. It is one of six colours the EU requires to carry a warning about possible effects on children’s activity and attention, and it can provoke pseudo-allergic reactions in aspirin-sensitive people.
Titanium dioxide
Titanium dioxide (E171) is a white pigment once used to brighten sweets, chewing gum, and sauces. In 2021 EFSA concluded it could "no longer be considered safe" as a food additive because a genotoxicity concern could not be ruled out, and the EU banned it in food from 2022.