Azorubine (Carmoisine) — Food Additive Index

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Azorubine (Carmoisine) by jurisdiction. Every jurisdiction this site covers is listed, including those where the substance does not appear.
Jurisdiction	Status	Scope and limits	Citation
United StatesFood and Drug Administration	Not listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited.
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFA	Permitted, with conditions	44 food categories highest permitted level 500 mg/kg Show every food category 01.1.4 Flavoured Fluid Milk Drinks — 150 mg/kg 01.6.1 Unripened cheese — 150 mg/kg 01.6.4.2 Flavoured processed cheese, including containing fruit, vegetables, meat, etc. — 10 mg/kg 01.6.5 Cheese analogues — 100 mg/kg 01.7 Dairy-based desserts (e.g. pudding, fruit or flavoured yoghurt) — 150 mg/kg 02.4 Fat-based desserts excluding dairy-based dessert products of food category 01.7 — 150 mg/kg 03.0 Edible ices, including sherbet and sorbet — 50 mg/kg 04.1.2.4 Canned or bottled (pasteurized) fruit — 200 mg/kg 04.1.2.5 — 200 mg/kg 04.1.2.6 Fruit-based spreads (e.g. chutney) excluding products of food category — 200 mg/kg 04.1.2.7 Candied fruit — 100 mg/kg 04.1.2.8 Fruit preparations, including pulp, purees, fruit toppings and coconut milk — 200 mg/kg 04.1.2.9 Fruit-based desserts, incl. fruit-flavoured water-based desserts — 150 mg/kg 04.2.2.3 Vegetables (including mushrooms and fungi, roots and tubers, pulses and legumes, and aloe vera), and seaweeds in vinegar, oil, brine, or soybean sauce — 200 mg/kg 05.2.1 Hard candy — 50 mg/kg 05.2.2 Soft candy — 100 mg/kg 05.2.3 Nougats and marzipans — 50 mg/kg 05.3 Chewing gum — 100 mg/kg 05.4 Decorations (e.g. for fine bakery wares), toppings (non-fruit), and sweet sauces — 300 mg/kg 06.3 Breakfast cereals, including rolled oats — 150 mg/kg 06.5 Cereal and starch based desserts (e.g. rice pudding, tapioca pudding) — 150 mg/kg 07.1.2 Crackers, excluding sweet crackers — 50 mg/kg 07.1.3 Other ordinary bakery products (e.g. bagels, pita, English muffins) — 50 mg/kg 07.2 Fine bakery wares (sweet, salty, savoury) and mixes — 100 mg/kg 09.2.2 Frozen battered fish, fish fillets and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — 290 mg/kg 09.2.4.1 Cooked fish and fish products — 15 mg/kg 09.2.4.2 Cooked molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — 15 mg/kg 09.2.4.3 Fried fish and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — 100 mg/kg 09.3.3 Salmon substitutes, caviar and other fish roe products — 100 mg/kg 09.3.4 Semi-preserved fish and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans and echinoderms (e.g. fish paste), excluding products of food categories 09.3.1 - 09.3.3 — 290 mg/kg 09.4 Fully preserved, including canned or fermented fish and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — 290 mg/kg 12.2.2 Seasonings and condiments — 500 mg/kg 12.4 Mustards — 300 mg/kg 12.5 Soups and broths — 50 mg/kg 12.6 Sauces and like products — 500 mg/kg 13.3 Dietetic foods intended for special medical purposes (excluding products of food category 13.1) — 50 mg/kg 13.4 Dietetic formulae for slimming purposes and weight reduction — 50 mg/kg 13.5 Dietetic foods (e.g. supplementary foods for dietary use) excluding products of food categories — 300 mg/kg 13.6 Food supplements — 300 mg/kg 14.1.4 Water-based flavoured drinks, including "sport," “energy,” or "electrolyte" drinks and particulated drinks — 95 mg/kg 14.2.6 Distilled spirituous beverages containing more than 15% alcohol — 200 mg/kg 14.2.7 Aromatized alcoholic beverages (e.g. beer, wine and spirituous cooler-type beverages, low-alcoholic refreshers) — 100 mg/kg 15.1 Snacks - potato, cereal, flour or starch based (from roots and tubers, pulses and legumes) — 200 mg/kg 15.2 Processed nuts, including coated nuts and nut mixtures (with e.g. dried fruit) — 100 mg/kg	CXS 192-1995 Table One, INS 122and 43 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Made by diazotising an aromatic amine and coupling it to a naphthalenesulfonic acid, both from petroleum feedstocks. Despite the name it has nothing to do with carmine, which comes from insects.

Vegan
Vegetarian

Every name it appears under

2 recorded names. A label may use any of them.

INS number

Other names

AZORUBINE (CARMOISINE)

Hazard reference values

No reference value for this substance in the sources we hold.

Evidence and how bodies read it

Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the community: a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial

McCann D, Barrett A, Cooper A, Crumpler D, Dalen L, Grimshaw K, et al.. The Lancet. 2007 doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61306-3

Design: RCT
Model: human
Dose: Two mixtures of four synthetic colours plus sodium benzoate, at doses chosen to reflect typical UK intakes, given in a drink; challenge and placebo periods.
Endpoint: Global hyperactivity aggregate, combining teacher and parent ratings with a computerised attention test.
Funding: UK Food Standards Agency

What it found. Reported a small increase in the composite hyperactivity measure in 3-year-olds and 8/9-year-olds during the additive-challenge periods compared with placebo. The authors described the effects as modest and variable between individuals.

Limitations. The additives were given as mixtures, so the result cannot be attributed to any single colour or to the benzoate. Effect sizes were small relative to the spread between children, adherence differed between age groups, and the trial measured behaviour over short challenge periods rather than long-term outcomes.

How different bodies read the evidence

Positions are paraphrased in each body's own framing. Where they differ, both stand; this site does not adjudicate between them.

EFSA 2008
Judged the trial to provide limited evidence of a small effect on activity and attention in some children, but held that the mixtures tested did not allow any effect to be attributed to an individual additive, and that the findings did not warrant changing the acceptable daily intakes.
Action taken: Left intake limits unchanged
Source document
European Union (legislature) 2008
Took the same evidence as grounds for a consumer-information measure rather than a change in permitted levels, requiring foods containing these colours to carry the statement that they 'may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children'.
Action taken: Imposed a mandatory warning statement while leaving the additives authorised
Source document

Sources for this page

gsfa retrieved 2026-09-07

Full licence terms and publisher details on Sources. How this page is built and updated: Method.

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